College of Charleston, the Oldest Municipal College

This cornerstone belongs to the College of Charleston, one of the oldest colleges in the country. The colony first proposed it in seventeen seventy, but political rivalry and the Revolution delayed everything, and classes did not begin until seventeen ninety. The first class, just six students, graduated in seventeen ninety-four.

Its founders are a remarkable roll call. Three would sign the Declaration of Independence and three would sign the United States Constitution, including John Rutledge and the Pinckney cousins. In eighteen thirty-seven the city of Charleston took control of the school, making it the first municipal college in the nation.

The building whose foundation was laid here in nineteen thirty-eight came later, a physical education center funded with federal Public Works money during the Depression and dedicated, in its own words, to the physical well-being of youth.