There’s a beauty of an old structure on downtown’s Craven Street that turns just about every head that passes it by. It’s the 224 year old Beaufort Arsenal building and it resembles a big old fort right in the heart of Beaufort, even if its yellow lime wash color seems oddly out of place in an historic district known for stately white houses and oak lined streets.
The Beaufort Arsenal was designed by Colonel Thomas Tailbird and was built in 1798 to house the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery, whose members were a collection of prominent local names, in the years following its fighting along with the Continental Army during the American Revolution from 1775 through 1783.
It’s said that during the Revolution, the well-equipped BVA fought battles up and down the coast and even helped drive the British away from Port Royal Island.
The Arsenal is that old.
Over the years the oldest arsenal building in the U.S. has served as a place for meetings, social gatherings and parties, munitions storage and more, and parts of it were rebuilt in the 1850s.
The BVA was disbanded shortly after the Civil War and later became the National Guard.
Today, the Arsenal is the home of the Beaufort History Museum and a visitor center for tourists who come to Beaufort in droves and it’s also used for parties, events and Civil War encampments and reenactments.
The Beaufort Arsenal is one of the most significant historic buildings in all of Beaufort with over 200 years of service.
Beaufort is rich in history, and there’s no better place to start exploring than the Beaufort Arsenal.
If only those yellowish walls could talk.
