College of Charleston
liberal arts college in Charleston, South Carolina, USA
The College of Charleston (CofC or Charleston) is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, and the country's oldest municipal college.
The founders of the College of Charleston included six Founding Fathers of the United States, including three who signed the Declaration of Independence (Thomas Heyward Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge) and three who signed the Constitution of the United States (Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and John Rutledge).
History
The College of Charleston was founded in 1770, making it the 13th-oldest institution of higher education and oldest municipal college in the nation. The college's original structure, located at the site of what is now Randolph Hall, was designed similar to a barracks. In March 1785, the South Carolina General Assembly issued a charter to the college, which officially opened in 1790 and hosted its first commencement in 1794. The first president of the college was Robert Smith, who served in the position from 1790 to 1797.
A second charter was issued by the general assembly in 1791 stipulating that the college would not discriminate on the basis of religion. During the Antebellum era, further development efforts in the college resulted in the construction of Randolph Hall and the President's House, both of which were built using slave labor. In 1837, the Charleston municipal government assumed control over the college.
The public source identifies “College of Charleston” as liberal arts college in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around College, Charleston and liberal.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4507421. VIAF identifies the subject as 150089771. The Library of Congress control number is n80002554. Authority coordinates are 32.784, -79.938. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1770, 1785, 1790 and 1794.
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This entry incorporates text from “College of Charleston” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.