MARKET HALL BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE
Designed by Edward B. White, Charleston, SC’s Market Hall was built in 1841 to
anchor the city’s market sheds. The $3.6 million restoration directed by Joseph K. Oppermann – Architect, P.A.
has brought the building back to its original condition. The ground floor is now an open market and the second
floor houses an updated Civil War museum. Photo: Joseph K. Oppermann – Architect, P.A.
Designed in accordance with the Golden Mean and built in 1841, Market Hall was modeled after the Temple of Nike
in Athens. The building has long been considered the masterwork of Charleston’s premiere architect of the
mid-19th century, Edward Brickell White, and the handsomely detailed and gracefully proportioned building
stands out in a city known for its early architecture and important landmarks.
The two-story building was originally built to form the western terminus of the city’s public market, a series
of low, one-story, open-sided brick sheds stretching four blocks from Meeting St., the city’s main commercial
thoroughfare, east to the waterfront. North Market St. and South Market St. sit just a few feet from the north
and south elevations respectively and Market Hall created a grand entrance to the market from the commercial
district. The open ground floor provided space for vendors and offices for the market manager and constable,
and the upper level contained a large public meeting hall. Damage from Civil War bombardments, an earthquake in
1886, decades of infrequent maintenance and finally Hurricane Hugo in 1989 had left the building with serious
structural cracks and a severely deteriorated façade.
The top floor of Market Hall was leased to the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1899 for a Civil War museum.
When the hurricane hit almost a century later in 1989, the museum had to move to temporary quarters. After
conducting stabilization, Charleston’s mayor, Joseph P. Riley, Jr., launched a national search in 1992 for a
team to conduct the restoration of Market Hall. Joseph K. Oppermann, FAIA, of Winston-Salem, NC, was selected
to lead that effort.
The $3.6-million restoration was completed in 2002. The two-story building provides 4,200 sq.ft. of net space.
The restored first floor is open for vendors again and the Daughters of the Confederacy now has a
state-of-the-art Civil War Museum on the second floor.
Market Hall is the “epitome of illusion in architecture,” says Oppermann. “It was built of inexpensive brick
trimmed with brownstone, but then the brick was coated with stucco that was molded and scored to look like
large blocks of rusticated brownstone on the ground floor walls and like fine ashlar cut stone on the upper
floor level. Tinted limewash was added as a protective coat and to unify the appearance of the “stone” façade.
Inside, common pine doors were grained to look like expensive oak and wood mantels were faux painted to look
like marble. In addition, a balcony with an oculus above the foyer creates a dramatic entrance, but there are
no stairs to the balcony and the balcony doorways lead nowhere.
By the early 1990s, Market Hall had fallen into a state of disrepair and had also suffered structural and surface damage during Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Photo: Joseph K. Oppermann – Architect, P.A
“This project provided a lot of challenges,” Oppermann says. “To start, Charleston is located in an earthquake
zone, the site is a former creek bed and the building is constructed of load-bearing masonry, which does not do
well in earthquakes. One of the first things we did was to set up monitoring devices to check the cracks that
had occurred in the building as a result of an earthquake in 1886. These operated 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, for six months, through one cycle from hot to cold.”
Two major areas of damage to the masonry were discovered and in both locations the cracks extended from below
grade all the way through the cornice. The walls were probed to determine the full extent of the cracks. The
repair, devised by structural engineer David C. Fischetti, P.E., of Cary, NC, included the replacement of
sheared brick and then the placement of stainless-steel serrated rods in the mortar joints to stitch the walls
back together. The building was also made more stable by inserting diaphragms at the first floor and attic
levels to better tie the walls together. Salem Contracting of Indian Trail, NC, conducted the masonry repairs.
Extensive damage was also discovered in the roof timbers. “The heavy timber trusses in the attic had extensive
rot and were full of termites,” Oppermann explains. Fischetti devised repairs that included the removal of
damaged sections and the insertion of Dutchman repairs. The framing was repaired by members of the Timber
Framers Guild, led by Mike Goldberg of Woodstock, GA, and Peter Bull of Cleveland, GA. Some damaged areas, such
as a splintered section of a truss in the attic that had been hit by canon fire during the Civil War, were kept
in their found condition. “We left that damage so that there would be tangible evidence of that chapter of the
building’s history,” Oppermann says.
For the roof, the architectural team decided to go back to the standing-seam metal roof of the 1840s but used
copper instead of reproducing the red painted ferric-based metal roof on the original building. Picquet Roofing
of Charleston, SC, installed the roof. “We decided to go with the copper because it requires little
maintenance,” Oppermann notes. “In this maritime climate, a ferric-based metal roof would have to be scraped
and repainted about every seven years.”
The front steps were another challenge. “Each step was a single, 9-ft.-long block of stone, 12 in. deep and
eight in. tall, with no seams,” says Oppermann, “and the treads were badly deteriorated.” Portland Brownstone
Quarries of Cheshire, CT, which mines the same vein from which the original stairs came, was able to produce
large blocks for consideration. Oppermann went to the quarry and personally marked the narrow sections of each
block from which the step would be cut.
The exterior ironwork was cleaned and repaired by Asheville Ironworks of Asheville, NC. A new brass handrail
was added at a height to improve accessibility by the handicapped and the existing ironwork was repainted its
original bright green color. “This shade of green is actually very typical of the 1840s throughout the country
and we have found it on a number of buildings in the Low Country, though most people were surprised when it was
identified,” Oppermann says. New copper lanterns, designed to burn gas as did the originals, were built to
replace those removed in the late-19th century. Made by John Gant of Charleston, SC, these were based on
historical photographs, including a pair taken by Civil War photographer Matthew Brady in 1865 during the Union
occupation.
The interior restoration of the building was also extensive. In addition to the consolidation of flat plaster,
new sections of plaster details were cast and installed as infill where there were damaged and missing
elements. Dutchman repairs were made to the original pine floors and woodwork and original surface colors were
identified and reproduced. The decorative painting was executed by Plantation Painters, Inc., of Charleston,
SC, and Jim Jacobs of Charleston Woodworks, also of Charleston, was responsible for the interior woodwork. locations.
“For a museum, the environmental conditions were especially challenging,” says Oppermann. “We had to deal with
sunlight flooding in from large windows on three elevations, extreme heat in summer and high humidity
year-round. The mechanical system had to moderate these conditions for very sensitive collections. A part of
the solution included the addition of a thermal window with UV-filtering inside the existing sash of each
window. The framing of the new window is configured to align with the stiles and rails of the original
triple-hung sash. And each section of the new window is removable to allow maintenance and repair.” The
environmental systems were designed by Landmark Facilities Group, Inc., of East Norwalk, CT, and the new
thermal windows were constructed by Hope’s Windows of Jamestown, NY.
Of the restoration, Oppermann says: “While a full complement of engineers is important for the restoration
effort, as in new design, there are a number of other professions that are essential to a restoration. It is a
team effort. Everyone has a critical part in the effort: architect, engineer, historian, archaeologist and
conservator.”
The City of Charleston, Joseph K. Oppermann, FAIA, and NBM Construction Co. received the National Preservation
Honor Award for the restoration of Market Hall from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in October,
2003. That award stated, in part: “Charleston has long been revered as a model for historic preservation and
the painstaking attention to detail in the restoration of Market Hall further illustrates Charleston’s
dedication to maintaining its historic landmarks.”
Headed up by Joseph K. Oppermann, FAIA, former Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer for Texas, the
firm of Joseph K. Oppermann – Architect, P.A., specializes in the research, analysis, conservation, restoration
and retrofitting of historic buildings. Based in Winston-Salem, NC, and founded in 1999, the firm includes a
technical staff of three, in addition to Oppermann. The firm offers a full line of traditional basic
architectural services as well as special services for historic buildings, such as Historic Structures Reports,
Physical Condition Surveys, Record Documents and feasibility studies for historic structures.
See details about the winning entry in the May/June 2004 issue of Traditional Building Magazine.
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