Chamber of Commerce

Front: On December 9, 1773, the first Chamber of Commerce in the City of Charleston was organized on Broad Street at Mrs. Swallow's Inn. John Savage was its first President. After the Revolution and six months after Charleston was incorporated, the Chamber was reorganized. Of the postwar presidents, Alexander Gillon and John Lewis Gervais each served for a year, Edward Darrell for a number of years. Reverse: The Charleston Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1773 in a tavern near the eastern end of Broad Street. For many years after the Civil War, the Chamber occupied the Riggs Building, formerly at East Bay and Broad. It was later located on Meeting Street, and from 1916 to 1966, it occupied the Old Bank Building at 50 Broad Street. Its present home is the old West Point Rice Mill, built in 1861.