Old Town Hall

Front inscription

The Old Town Hall, built ca. 1860, is the oldest public building in Summerville. Rev. Robert I. Limehouse (1815-1881), a Methodist minister and the town intendant, or mayor, purchased the site for the town hall that year. A jail and market place also once stood here. In early 1865, in the final days of the Civil War, the village wardens left a meeting to defend Summerville from a band of raiders and killed one of them.

Reverse inscription

At least sixteen intendants served Summerville in this building between ca. 1860 and 1892, when a new town hall was built on the Square. The Old Town Hall, described as the "heart of the old village," was later a school, polling place, community center, tea room, and residence. Though badly damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the building was purchased and restored by the Summerville Preservation Society and is now the Society's headquarters and archives.