When did the Charleston National Parks become part of the National Park Service?

The National Park Service, a division of the Department of the Interior, has had a presence in the Charleston Area for over 75 years. Today, the Charleston National Parks are comprised of a number of historic treasures that attract visitors from all over the world. While they are all now part of the same family, they joined at various times.  

World War II (1941-1945) marked the end of the usefulness of coastal fortifications and shortly afterwards Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie were decommissioned by the US Army and placed on the surplus property list. Fearing the loss of such iconic properties to developers, a group of South Carolina Congressmen stepped in and requested that the Department of the Interior take over Fort Sumter and that the state of South Carolina acquire Fort Moultrie. US Senator Burnet Rhett Maybank of South Carolina introduced the legislation to make Fort Sumter a national monument. It passed Congress and was signed by President Harry Truman on April 28, 1948. After the land officially transferred to the National Park Service in June 1948, the Park Service began a multiyear process of removing structures that had been added to Fort Sumter following the Civil War. The last major change was in 1959 when about 1/3 of what remained of the fort was excavated to expose interior Civil War elements. A museum was opened in one of the Endicott gun positions in 1961. With fresh new exhibits, the museum was rededicated in May of 1995.

Tours of Fort Sumter began informally shortly after the Civil War and by the early 1930s, Gray Line Tours operated regularly scheduled tours from a wharf at the foot of King Street. Fort Sumter Tours began using the Charleston Marina on the Ashely River in 1962. With the goal of establishing a permanent visitor center and excursion dock the Park Service acquired a blighted waterfront property on the Cooper River at the foot of Calhoun Street Charleston in 1986. Part of the property was leased to the South Carolina Aquarium. After 33 years of operating without an official visitors center for Fort Sumter,  in 2001 the Liberty Square Visitor Education Center began operating as a departure point for tours to Fort Sumter. On June 14, 2003, the NPS dedicated Liberty Square’s Septima Clark Fountain. In 2021, Fort Sumter Tours was purchased by Aramark Corporation from the Campsen family who had operated the business for 62 years. 

Fort Moultrie, located across the channel from Fort Sumter on Sullivan’s Island, was in use by the military from 1776 through World War II. After the Civil War, the government acquired additional land and expanded the fort into a large military reservation. The US Army deeded the historic fort and almost one hundred surrounding acres over to the state of South Carolina in 1950 as part of the government surplus properties program.

The State hoped to develop the property into a state park but could not raise the needed funds. Finally in September of 1960 the state of South Carolina deeded 14.3 acres to the Department of the Interior and the two forts became the Fort Sumter/Fort Moultrie National Monument under the National Park Service. Much like Fort Sumter, many structures remained from over 175 years of using the site for harbor defense making interpretation a challenge. Fort Moultrie officially opened on April 1, 1963, and almost 10,700 people came out the first day to view the exhibits and a parade. A museum was incorporated into the sally port of the Fort. In 1972. To prepare the site for the bicentennial of the Revolutionary war, the National Park Service came up with a plan to highlight the various historic eras. The old post hospital across the street from old Fort Moultrie was raised and a new visitor center was constructed. It was officially dedicated on Carolina Day, June 28 1976. In 1980, the Headquarters of the National Monument was located in a historic mine storage building adjacent to the Visitor Center. 

On Carolina Day 1978 with the Governor of South Carolina and many descendants present, General William Moultrie’s remains were officially reinterred at a site behind the parking lot, close to the boat dock. Over the years, a number of Civil War cannons were exhibited culminating in Artillery Row one of the most comprehensive displays of Civil War sea coast heavy artillery anywhere. 

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

The Charles Pinckney plantation site was the third jewel in the crown and was established under the administration of Fort Sumter/Fort Moultrie National Monument in 1990. One of several plantations owned by Charles Pinckney in the late 18th century. The Park Service determined to focus the site on Charles Pinckney’s role in developing the US Constitution. A storage facility for artifacts and records from Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie and the Charles Pinckney site was built in 1996.  On August 6, 2022 upgraded exhibits focusing on the Gullah Geechee experience and the enslaved people who lived at the site as well as Charles Pinckney’s contributions to the US Constitution were opened to the visiting public. The peaceful grounds contain a number of grand oak trees and a variety of Camelia bushes. 

US COAST GUARD HISTORIC DISTRICT 

Following the Civil War, it was decided to divert the natural shipping channel from its course along Morris Island to a direct entrance supported by a system of jetties. This greatly improved access to the inner harbor but made the US Life Saving Station on Morris Island obsolete. In 1895, the Life-Saving Service relocated the station to Sullivan’s Island about a mile east of Fort Moultrie.  The Life-Saving Service was incorporated into the US Coast Guard in 1915. In the early 1970s, when the Coast Guard no longer needed the buildings, the National Park Service began leasing the property using the house for seasonal quarters and as a permanent apartment for a ranger and the garage as maintenance facilities. In 1990, the US Coast Guard Historic District became official property of the National Park Service. The legislation that authorized the purchase of the land for Liberty Square also authorized the swap of the federal land on Sullivan’s Island from the Coast Guard to the National Park Service . The lighthouse, however, remained active and under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard, and so was not part of the land swap and remained the property of the Coast Guard. In In 2008, FOSU acquired the Charleston Light (the Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse) from the Coast Guard via the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act.  The NPS is investigating the possibility of opening the lighthouse for tours.

National Historic Park Formed

Finally, with so many sites to preserve and administer, in 2019 Congress authorized the

establishment of the Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park as a single unit of the National Park System to preserve, maintain, and interpret the nationally significant historical values and cultural resources associated with Fort Sumter National Monument, Fort Moultrie National Monument, and the Sullivan's Island Life Saving Station Historic District.

If you would like more information about the Charleston National Parks, extensive documentation is available in The Administrative History of Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park by Burton, Beatrice et al November 2015.