History of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce

The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce has been responsible for many things in Charleston, ranging from educational institutions, a development board, and though indirectly, “She Crab Soup.”

From the inception of the first chamber of commerce, in the troubled years before the American Revolution, the Chamber has been distinguished for its leadership by men who were active, vital and integral citizens of the community at large.

In 1773, when the original Chamber was organized, the Indian wars of the southeastern colonies were over, but a much graver problem was brewing - breach with the mother country.

Little is known of that organization except that John Savage was its president until 1783 when the post-revolutionary  Chamber was re-organized.  The early Chamber was active, however, as attested to by an item in Wells Almanac and Register in 1775 concerning chamber action on protected bills of exchange.  Charleston itself was weak in mature manpower, economically broke and physically wreaked.

But there was leadership and Commodore Alexander Gillon was elected president of the reorganized Chamber. His was one of 70 signatures on the Chamber minutes book when 18 rules and a preamble were adopted in February 1784.

The new Chamber faced difficult economic problems.  The British bounty on Indigo no longer existed for that crop.  It had been the principal cash crop, making both businessman and planter wealthy, but now it was rice and cotton that the city-state looked to for economic well-being.  Charleston’s leaders, most of them members of the Chamber, promoted export of both rice and cotton and ushered in what became known as Charleston’s “Golden Age.”

The dramatic increase in harbor activity reflected a new prosperity. The Chamber played a leading role in promoting the port and also in the ever expanding frontiers to the northwest and southwest.  Members of the Chamber were leaders in such endeavors as the Santee Canal which gave the upcountry a sea outlet through Charleston.  Soon after it opened in 1801, more than 1,700 barges were using the waterway each year.

The nation’s first railroad line of any consequence also found backing among Chamber members.  It ran to Hamburg, across the Savannah River from Augusta, GA, and siphoned off freight that had been moving down river to Savannah.

When war with France seemed imminent in the 1790s, members of the Chamber attended a mass meeting in St. Michael’s Church where funds were raised for construction of a fort to augment the paltry $11,000 the US Congress had appropriated for harbor defense.  Thus it was that Fort Mechanic was built, and it was the same group that pushed  for construction of a new Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter as part of the nation’s Third Defense System. 

During the great nullification debates in the Congress, the Chamber made itself  heard through letters to John C. Calhoun and other national figures.  Chamber programs were arranged for members of the Palmetto Regiment that trained in Charleston before shipping out for the Mexican War in 1845-46.  It was this unit that planted both the US and SC flags atop Chapultepee, the fortress remembered in the Marine hymn as the “Halls of Montezuma.”

With foreign trade cut-off, the Chamber had little activity during the Civil War and there is a gap in the records between the end of 1868 and 1871. The city was in the hands of the carpetbag entrepreneurs who had swarmed into the south after the war. The post-war Chamber was re-organized and it was very active under William A. Courtenay.  He became the mayor of Charleston and his leadership of both the Chamber and city had caused him to be regarded a most able mayor.  He brought the city back to prosperity following a disastrous earthquake in 1886, initiated the use of brick and Belgian block for street paving, built the High Battery, and developed Colonial Lake.

Mayor Courtenay’s close association with the state’s congressional delegation resulted in the construction  of the harbor jetties, a mammoth undertaking and one that opened the harbor to the deep-draft ships that were being built in the post war era.  It also meant that the Navy could move its Civil War shipyard at Port Royal to Charleston, a move that brought the metropolitan area its largest payroll.

When the “Great White Fleet”  was making its historic world tour in 1912 to show the might of the United States, it visited Charleston and the Chamber was publicly recognized for its part in deepening the harbor.

WWI docks were being abandoned by the military and the Chamber spearheaded in the formation of a Port Utilities Commission that took over the docks and their railway lines.  This was the forerunner of the S.C. State Ports Authority which was organized after WWII, also at the insistence of the Chamber.

The growing thrust of aviation caused the Chamber to work for an airport.  The first one was at Riverland Terrace.  Charleston Mayor, Thomas P. Stoney, who was to head the Chamber in 1954, drew heavily on two former Chamber presidents, J. Ross Hanahan, and Andrew J. Geer in establishing an airport at ten mile hill where it is located today.

During the economic slough of the Great Depression, chamber personnel and members worked with local, state, and federal agencies to provide jobs for the unemployed. 

While many members were on active duty with the Armed Forces, others acted as members of home guard units and served on numerous boards and organizations connected with the war effort.

On May 18, 1943, Mr. Godshalk headed a special committee at which the nucleus of the Charleston Development Board was established as part of a post-war program.  The Development Board was to become the prime force in attracting business and industry to the Charleston area during the post war years, and continues today in that role.

The Chamber moved into the tourism field after the war and was instrumental in many innovative programs that have resulted in Charleston becoming a major tourism attraction. 

Chamber committees visited Washington D.C. to assure establishment of the Charleston Air Force Base and later performed the same function in having Charleston selected as the first Polaris nuclear submarine base. 

The post-war programs were coordinated in 1965 when the Chamber of Commerce, Charleston Development Board, and the Committee of Thirty were united as the Charleston Trident Chamber of Commerce.  The Committee of Thirty was a group of young  businessmen promoting Charleston as a tourism area.This coordination and efficiency producing move resulted in a tremendous increase in tourism. 

During the three decades since WWII, the Chamber’s program of work has been designed to achieve a balance in industry, business, military and tourism.  The result has been a consistent growth of the area along the lines of economy and population.

As the Chamber enters its fourth century of service to its community, the future is very bright.  While the area still is heavily dependent on the military payroll, the ratio of private to public spending is steadily moving toward emphasis of the private sector.

As in its infancy, today’s Chamber reflects a cosmopolitan membership. Presently, the Chamber is a private, non-profit organization comprised of more than 2,100 businesses that strive to accomplish as a team what no one business could do alone. Through various programs and initiatives, the Chamber continues to move our region forward in every facet of the community: business development, workforce development, hospitality development and public policy.