Charleston, South Carolina
City of Charleston
— City —
The corner of King St. and Market St. in Charleston
Flag
Seal
Nickname(s): "The Holy City", "The Palmetto City", Carolopolis
(Latin), "Chucktown"
Motto: Aedes Mores Juraque Curat (She cares for her temples,
customs, and rights)
Location of Charleston, South Carolina.
Coordinates: 32°47′00″N 79°56′00″W / 32.783333°N 79.93333
/ 32.783333; -79.933333
Country
United States
State
South Carolina
Counties
Charleston, Berkeley
Government
- Mayor
Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
Area
- City
178.1 sq mi (376.5 km2)
- Land
147.0 sq mi (361.2 km2)
- Water
17.1 sq mi (44.3 km2)
Elevation
20 ft (4 m)
Population (2008)
- City
126,567 (est.)
- Density
996.5/sq mi (384.7/km2)
- Metro
720,695
Time zone
EST (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)
EDT (UTC-4)
Area code(s)
843
FIPS code
45-13330[1]
GNIS feature ID
1221516{{GProxy-Connection: keep-ali
Cache-Control: max-age=0
3}}
Website
http://www.charlestoncity.info/
Charleston is a city in Charleston County in
the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the
largest city and county seat of Charleston
County.[2] The city was founded as Char-
lestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in
1670, and moved to its present location (Oys-
ter Point) from a location on the west bank of
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charleston, South Carolina
1
the Ashley River in 1680; it adopted its
present name in 1783. In 1690, Charleston
was the fifth largest city in North America,[3]
and remained among the ten largest cities in
the United States
through
the 1840
census.[4] Charleston is known as The Holy
City due to the prominence of churches on
the low-rise cityscape, particularly the nu-
merous steeples which dot the city’s skyline,
and for the fact that it was one of the few cit-
ies in the original thirteen colonies to provide
religious tolerance to the French Huguenot
Church.[5] In fact, it is still the only city in the
U.S. with such a church.[6] Charleston was
also one of the first colonial cities to allow
Jews to practice their faith without restric-
tion. Kahal Kadosh Beth