Anyone who’s been to Charleston will recognize the name “Dock Street,” even though there is no such street in the city today. The present Dock Street Theatre at 135 Church Street opened in November 1937, and has become famous in recent years for the chamber music concerts held there during the annual Spoleto USA festivals. The theater, actually a renovated antebellum hotel, claims to have been built on the site of the original Dock Street Theatre that opened in February 1736. That earlier venue was a much smaller structure, however, and was actually situated a few paces to the northwest, on Queen Street. Charleston residents, tour guides, and history books will explain this confusing nomenclature by telling you that Queen Street was called Dock Street when the first theater opened, but the street’s name was changed shortly thereafter. Dock Street, they will add, was so named because the street was once an inlet that led from the Cooper River into the heart of the early Charles Town, at the end of which was a dock for boats entering from the bay.
For most people, that explanation provides a sufficient clarification of the issue, and satisfies their historical curiosity as well. For this history nerd, however, it merely stimulates me to dig deeper into the past for confirmation of its veracity and to search for illuminating details. When did Dock Street acquire that name, for example, and when was it officially changed to Queen Street? Was it really an inlet used by boats, and if so, where was the dock that inspired the name? When was the dock built, and who was responsible for its construction? When was the inlet filled to create the street? I’m hot on the trail of the answers to these questions, and in near future I’ll post the results of my attempt to get to the bottom of this matter.
History nerds!: There are many more of them than you might expect. But there are few who really will do the work.