ABSTRACT
TO UNDERSTAND THE ESTABLISHMENT of Historic Charleston Foundation in 1947 and its evolution over the following five decades, it is useful to examine the historic preservation movement in Charleston prior to the 1940s. As in so many other cities, the first stirrings of the preservation impulse were stimulated by the destruction-or threatened destruction-of landmark buildings, structures closely linked with community history whose presence on the cityscape often fostered a sense of civic identity for residents. Charleston faced loss of landmark buildings a number of times in the first years of the twentieth century, and these threats galvanized heritage groups to action and even inspired the creation of a new organization, the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings. But in one revealing way, the early preservation movement in Charleston was unlike the experience of any other American city: Charleston was the first city in the country to use the zoning process to encourage historic preservation. Through its zoning ordinance of 1931, municipal officials and preservationists sought to marshal public authority to protect historic architecture. The origins of Historic Charleston Foundation in 1947 were rooted in this vibrant local context that spawned both the private campaigns to rescue landmark buildings and municipal government's pioneering preservation ordinance of 1931.
