And then the wall came a-tumblin’ down.
The folks at Charleston's Second Presbyterian Church are guessing the bricks spilled to the sidewalk around 2 p.m. on Nov. 17. The bulging wall at the corner of Charlotte and Elizabeth streets has been menacing passersby for years, the threat increasing every time rain saturated the high graveyard behind it.
Thankfully, the city erected soft fencing and barricades in the spring after a contractor working at the church noted that the curve of the bulge seemed to be enlarging. A few parking spaces were blocked off.
So when a large section of the old brick wall fell away, no one was hurt and nothing was damaged. Except for the innocent sidewalk under the rubble, which likely now needs some municipal attention.
By 4 p.m., city officials were on site securing the area and removing any hazards from public rights of way, city spokesman Jack O’Toole said. The assumption is that the loose bricks will be incorporated into a new wall, he said.
Fair assumption. The loose bricks will be incorporated into the new wall, said Russell Smith, a contractor working on other projects at the church who is knowledgeable about the repair plans.
Those plans are a result of a settlement reached in August between the city and The Dewberry. The luxury hotel located nearby agreed on Aug. 3 to pay the cost of repairing and rebuilding the wall in exchange for the right to keep operating its rooftop Citrus Bar.
The bar was part of Plan B for the hotel’s rooftop. In 2017, the city’s zoning officials objected, citing noise concerns raised by residents of the Mazyck-Wraggborough neighborhood. A legal confrontation ensued that ended with the wall repair deal.
Patterson Smith, treasurer of Second Presbyterian Church, called the structural failure “a good news story” and a “win-win-win.”
That’s because the church and the city worked together in recognizing the public safety hazard and The Dewberry provided a solution, he said.
“The good news is that we were all paying attention,” Smith said.
The Rev. Cress Darwin, pastor of Second Presbyterian, speculated that perhaps recent rainfall saturated the cemetery terrain, causing it to expand and push against the bricks.
The old brick wall had been protruding over the sidewalk for years, and the bulge was getting worse and worse with each drenching rain. On Nov. 17, 2022, some of the wall fell, even as plans are laid to repair it. Grace Beahm Alford/Staff
Or perhaps a wall already out of balance simply could no longer remain erect.
“Thank heavens it was ribboned off and no one passed by,” he said. “We can celebrate that finally the city and the church and the community and commerce all came together. Everyone was looking for his personal interest to be accommodated, but it was done. It’s a testament to the cooperative nature of the people in Charleston.”
The bottom portion of the wall did not fall. It continues to push back against the graveyard.
It’s thought that the wall dates to the middle 1860s and its construction was part of an earth-mining effort at one of the highest parts of the peninsula.
It has been unclear who exactly is responsible for the old brick barrier. Is it part of the church property or does it belong to the city? Charleston attorneys researched the history of the structure in 2018 and could find no records indicating that the city had ever accepted maintenance responsibility for the wall.
Its current status is the result of about 150 years of neglect. But that neglect has come to an end.
John Moore of Ellinwood + Machado Structural Engineers is nearly ready to seek the necessary permits and share the plans with city officials, Smith said.
The cemetery wall at Second Presbyterian Church is pictured in 2021. File/Staff
Since the scope of work has not yet been approved, it could change. But right now the plan is to remove the old wall, clean up the individual bricks and store them, dig a trench into which concrete footings can be poured and rebar installed, build a reinforced concrete wall to retain the graveyard and then a brick wall in front of it that’s well-tied to its younger sibling. The concrete wall will be invisible from the street.
The whole thing will be stepped down, following the contours of the terrain, Smith said. At one end, the inside retention wall will hold back perhaps 2 feet of sacred soil; at the other end around 5 or 6 feet.
The hope is that work can begin in earnest early next year, he said.
Soon enough the old wall will be good as new.