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Charleston is a city in Berkeley and Charleston
counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the
largest city and county seat of Charleston County. The
city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina
in 1670, and moved to its present location (Oyster Point)
from a location on the west bank of the Ashley River in
1680; it adopted its present name in 1783. In 1690, Charleston
was the fifth largest city in North America, and remained
among the ten largest cities in the United States through
the 1840 census.Charleston is known as The Holy City
due to the prominence of churches on the low-rise cityscape,
particularly the numerous steeples which dot the city's
skyline, and for the fact that it was the only city in
the original thirteen colonies to provide religious tolerance
to the French Huguenot Church.[citation needed] In fact,
it is still the only city in the U.S. with such a church.[citation
needed]Charleston was also one of the first colonial cities
to allow Jews to practice their faith without restriction.
Brith Shalom Beth Israel is the oldest Orthodox shul in
the South, founded by Ashkenazic (German and central European)
Jews in the mid 19th century. Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim
is Charleston's younger Reform synagogue.
The population was estimated to be 118,492
in 2007, making it the second most populous city in South
Carolina closely behind the state capital Columbia. Current
trends put Charleston as the fastest growing central city
in South Carolina. The metropolitan area population of
Charleston and North Charleston, which includes the entire
populations of Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties,
was estimated to be 603,178 in 2006. This ranks Charleston-North
Charleston as the second largest metropolitan statistical
area in the state behind Columbia. Nearly 80% of the Charleston
metro population lives inside the city and its surrounding
urbanized area (2000 pop.: 423,410).
The city of Charleston is located just south of the mid-point
of South Carolina's coastline, at the junction of the Ashley
and Cooper Rivers. Charleston's name is derived from Charles
Towne, named after King Charles II of England.
America's most-published etiquette
expert, Marjabelle Young Stewart, has recognized the
city since 1995 as the "best-mannered" city
in the U.S,[8] a claim lent credibility by the fact that
it has the first established Livability Court in the country.
History
After Charles II of England (1630-1685) was restored to
the British throne following Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate,
he granted the chartered Carolina territory to eight of
his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietor, in 1663.
It took seven years before the Lords could arrange for
settlement, the first being that of Charles Town. The community
was established by English settlers in 1670 on the west
bank of the Ashley River, a few miles northwest of the
present city. It was soon chosen by Anthony Ashley-Cooper,
one of the Lords Proprietor, to become a "great port
towne", a destiny which the city fulfilled. By 1680,
the settlement had grown, joined by others from England,
Barbados, and Virginia, and relocated to its current peninsular
location. The capital of the Carolina colony, Charleston
was the center for further expansion and the southernmost
point of English settlement during the late 1600s.
The settlement was often subject to attack
from sea and from land. Periodic assaults from Spain and
France, who still contested England's claims to the region,
were combined with resistance from Native Americans, as
well as pirate raids. Charleston's colonists erected a
fortification wall around the small settlement to aid in
its defense. Two buildings remain from the Walled City,
the Powder Magazine, where the city's supply of gunpowder
was stored, and the Pink House, believed to have been an
old colonial tavern.
A 1680 plan for the new settlement,
the Grand Modell, laid out "the model of an exact regular town," and
the future for the growing community. Land surrounding
the intersection of Meeting and Broad Streets was set aside
for a Civic Square. Over time it became known as the Four
Corners of the Law, referring to the various arms of governmental
and religious law presiding over the square and the growing
city. St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Charleston's oldest
and most noted church, was built on the southeast corner
in 1752. The following year the Capitol of the colony was
erected across the square. Because of its prominent position
within the city and its elegant architecture, the building
signaled to Charleston's citizens and visitors its importance
within the British colonies. Provincial court met on the
ground floor, the Commons House of Assembly and the Royal
Governor's Council Chamber met on the second floor.
While the earliest settlers primarily came from England,
colonial Charleston was also home to a mixture of ethnic
and religious groups. In colonial times, Boston, Massachusetts,
and Charleston were sister cities, and people of means
spent summers in Boston and winters in Charleston. There
was a great deal of trade with Bermuda and the Caribbean,
and some people came to live in Charleston from these
areas. French, Scottish, Irish, and Germans migrated
to the developing seacoast town, representing numerous
Protestant denominations, as well as Roman Catholicism
and Judaism. Sephardic Jews migrated to the city in such
numbers that Charleston eventually was home to, by the
beginning of the 19th Century and until about 1830, the
largest and wealthiest Jewish community in North America]
The Jewish Coming Street Cemetery, first established
in 1762, attests to their long-standing presence in the
community. The first Anglican church, St. Philip's Episcopal
Church, was built in 1682, although later destroyed by
fire and relocated to its current location. Slaves also
comprised a major portion of the population, and were
active in the city's religious community. Free black
Charlestonians and slaves helped establish the Old Bethel
United Methodist Church in 1797, and the congregation
of the Emanuel A.M.E. Church stems from a religious group
organized solely by African Americans, free and slave,
in 1791. The first American museum opened to the public
on January 12, 1773 in Charleston. From the mid-18th
century a large amount of immigration was taking place
in the upcountry of the Carolinas, some of it coming
from abroad through Charleston, but also much of it a
southward movement from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania,
until the upcountry population was larger than the coastal
population. The Upcountry people were viewed by Charlestonians
as being unpolished in many ways,[citation needed] and
had different interests, setting the stage for several
generations of conflicts between the Upcountry and the
Charleston elite.
Climate
Charleston has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen
climate classification Cfa), with mild winters, hot, humid
summers, and significant rainfall all year long. Summer
is the wettest season; almost half of the annual rainfall
occurs during the summer months in the form of thundershowers,
which is an effect similar to the monsoons found in Southern
Asia. Fall remains relatively warm through November. Winter
is short and mild, and is characterized by occasional rain.
Snow flurries seldom occur. The highest temperature recorded
(inside city limits at the Customs House on E. Bay St.)
was 104 °F (40 °C), on June 2, 1985, and the lowest
temperature recorded was 10 °F (−12 °C) on
January 21, 1985.[21] Hurricanes are a major threat to
the area during the summer and early fall, with several
severe hurricanes hitting the area - most notably Hurricane
Hugo in 1989 (a Category 4 storm).
Charleston was hit by a large tornado in 1761, which temporarily
emptied the Ashley River, and sank five offshore warships.
Metropolitan area
The Charleston Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of
three counties: Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester.
As of 2006, it was estimated that the metropolitan area
had a total population of about 603,178 people. Charleston
has several large suburbs. North Charleston is nearly
as populated as Charleston itself and ranks as the third
largest city in the state; Mount Pleasant and Summerville
are the next largest suburbs. The traditional parish
system persisted until the Reconstruction, when counties
were imposed. Nevertheless, traditional parishes still
exist in various capacities, mainly as public service
districts. The city of Charleston proper, which was originally
defined by the limits of the Parish of St. Philip & St.
Michael. It now also includes parts of St. James' Parish,
St. George's Parish, St. Andrew's Parish, and St. John's
Parish, although the last two are mostly still incorporated
rural parishes.
In the more detailed results of Census 2000, the Charleston-North
Charleston metropolitan area had a population of 549,033,
of which about 78% lived inside the central city and its
surrounding urban area. At that time, the Charleston-North
Charleston Urbanized Area proper consisted of 423,410 people
(including the suburbs listed below). This population makes
Charleston-North Charleston and Columbia essentially tied
as the two largest individual urbanized areas within the
state. The Charleston MSA also includes a separate and
much smaller urban area within Berkeley County, Moncks
Corner (2000 pop.: 9,123).
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