William Pitt Statue, Washington Square Park

Description

Statue of William Pitt in Washington Square Park, prior to it being moved to the Charleston Judicial Center.

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, championed the cause of the American colonies against the Stamp Act. The work of Joseph Wilton, an English sculptor, the statue was erected at the crossing of Broad and Meeting Streets on July 5, 1770, and was this country's first monument erected to a public man. New York's marble statue of Pitt was erected two months and one day later (Sept. 7, 1770) and her bronze statue of King George III on August 16, 1770. Virginia's statue of Lord Botetourt, a royal governor (still standing at the College of William and Mary) arrived in 1773.

Charleston's statue of Pitt cost $1,000, a sum voted in May, 1766 by the Commons of the Assembly. In typical 18th century style, the statue portrays Pitt as a Roman orator clad in a toga, with one arm holding a scroll. The other arm, which was upraised, was broken off in 1780 by a shell fired from a British battery on James Island. The head was broken off accidentally when the statue was removed from the intersection in 1794, when it was considered an obstruction to traffic. It was first stored and later set up in the yard of the Orphan House, where the children described the figure as "George Washington just getting out of bed." In 1891, the statue was moved to Washington Square. (Source: CCPL website)