College of Charleston history

In 1850 Randolph Hall was expanded, and Porters Lodge and a fence around the Cistern Yard were constructed.

Despite dwindling student numbers and a long-running siege of the city by Federal troops, there was no suspension of classes until December 19, 1864, two months before the city was evacuated.

Until the turn of the century, the College endured a series of setbacks, from financial crises to hurricanes to the devastating earthquake of 1886.

When Harrison Randolph assumed the office of the president in 1897, he noticed that the school only had students from the Charleston area.

Under President Randolph, a Bachelor of Science degree was introduced in 1900.

In an effort to boost the student population during World War I, when many of the male students were fighting abroad, the College admitted its first 10 women on September 30, 1917.

In 1921, the Night School of Commerce and Administration was introduced to offer higher commercial training to adults.

In 1939, for the first time, the number of female students exceeded the number of males 213 to 184.

In 1962, the first female tenure-track faculty member, Maggie Thurman Pennington, joined the College and remained a beloved biology professor for 35 years.

By 1967, the endowment funds were depleted.

In 1970, on its 200th anniversary, the College of Charleston became a state institution.

In 1974, the first intercollegiate soccer team was set up.

Spoleto USA launched in Charleston in 1977, and the College became an integral part of the annual program with the Cistern taking center stage.

In 1982, the F. Mitchell Johnson Physical Education Center opened in honor of a star basketball player, and Clyde the Cougar became a permanent team mascot.

The College established the African American History and Culture Center in 1984 at the Avery Institute, an elite black school that had been founded in the 19th century.

In 1985, Collins resigned as president amid a steep decline in student enrollment and a lack of funding.

The College established its computer centers in 1986.

Hurricane Hugo hit Charleston in 1989 and damaged 111 of the Colleges building at a cost of $32 million.

Another big achievement for the school was in 1992, when Robert Dukes of the physics department and his student Gabriel Drake discovered an eclipsing binary, a double star.

In 1996, the College opened its first international campus in Trujillo, Spain.

In 1997, a campus was set up in Annot, France, and a program was started in Cuba.

In March 2000, the school broke ground for the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library and, later that year, the athletics complex at Patriots Point opened.

In 2013, the College joined the Colonial Athletic Association, expanding its footprint within the Eastern Seaboard.

The 2014 Addlestone Improvement Project anticipated the arrival of the SCHS, providing premier space for the Historical Society’s archival treasures.