Old Market Building, Georgetown, SC, listed on the NRHP in South Carolina
The Old Market Building is a brick structure with a distinctive clock tower, built between 1832 and 1835 with the tower added around 1842, located in downtown Georgetown on Front Street. The ground level features a wide arcaded base where vendors once set up stalls, while the square tower above holds a working clock with four faces visible from all directions and a bell in the belfry.
The building was constructed after a major fire in 1841 destroyed the wooden market structure that had stood on the site since 1788, with the tower added shortly after around 1842. It served sequentially as a marketplace, town hall, and jail before becoming the Rice Museum in 1970 and being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
The building served as a gathering place where merchants and farmers sold goods and exchanged news about their trades. The bell in the tower marked the start and end of markets, work hours, and town meetings, shaping the daily routine of the community.
The building is centrally located in the historic downtown district on Front Street and is easily accessible on foot from nearby shops and other sites. The arcaded ground level provides shelter from weather, making it comfortable to walk around and view the structure regardless of conditions.
The building houses one of the few working historical clock towers in the region and carries a complicated history ranging from slave auctions to Confederate documents during the Civil War. Lightning struck the tower in 2007 and stopped the clock at exactly 4:27, remaining frozen until local efforts restored it to working order in 2012.
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