History & Publications

How this became a City burial ground

The burial ground at Coming and Boundary Streets was established for a public purpose. Boundary Street is now Calhoun Street. The historical burial ground was larger than today’s proposed building site at 106 Coming Street.

1793: The City bought the land. John Poaug conveyed about 3.4 acres to Charleston City Council through lease-and-release deeds dated January 1–2, 1793. The purchase price recorded in the release was £400 sterling. This was a purchase, not a donation.

1794: City Council assigned the land to burials. On August 20, Council resolved that the land bought from John Pouag on the north side of Boundary Street be used for people described in the notice as strangers, people dying in the poor house or hospitals, and Black people. It placed the ground under the direction of the poor-house commissioners.

This was a municipal burial ground: City Council acquired and designated the land, then assigned its administration. It was not simply unused land where people happened to be buried.

Sources: Charleston County Register of Mesne Conveyances, Book F6, pp. 519–522, lease and release, January 1–2, 1793, recorded February 22, 1793; City Council resolution, August 20, 1794, republished in the City Gazette, September 22, 1794, p. 4. The notice spells the seller’s name “Pouag”; the deed transcription uses “Poaug.”

Read the 1794 notice

The original uses a historical racial term reproduced here solely to preserve the record. Long-s characters are rendered as modern letters.

City Council, 20th of Aug. 1794.

WHEREAS it becomes at this time necessary that a place be appropriated for the burial of strangers, those who may die in the poor house, hospitals, and negroes: therefore resolved, That the lot of land lately bought from John Pouag, on the north side of Boundary-street, be applied to the above purpose, and that the commissioners of the poor-house have the same under their direction.

Extract from the journals,
P. Bounetheau, C. C.
August 23.

Watch: Public health and the burial ground

This 11-minute video explores the people and public health history connected to this ground. Historical illustrations are symbolic and AI-generated. Our campaign calls for preserving the burial ground in place.

Watch the public health and burial ground video on YouTube