St. Michael's Episcopal Church

The intersection of Broad and Meeting streets has always been about power. The 1680 plan for Charles Town set aside this ground for a Civic Square — a place where the arms of law would eventually converge. St. Michael's, built between 1752 and 1761, holds the ecclesiastical corner, one of four structures at what Charleston calls the Four Corners of the Law.

It is the oldest surviving church building in Charleston, and it has earned that age the hard way. The white tower was painted black during the Revolution to reduce its visibility to British gunners — it only became more conspicuous against the sky. The lead roof was melted down for bullets. The bells, cast in London in 1764, were carried off as a prize of war, returned by a London merchant, then cracked in a fire during the Civil War. The metal was sent back to England, recast in the original moulds, and rehung.

Pew 43 is still there, restored to its 18th-century finish. George Washington sat in it in 1791.