PHOTO ESSAY: Calhoun statue comes down in Charleston

Photos by Rob Byko. Copyright, 2020.

Staff reports  |  Contributing photographer Rob Byko captured the moment Wednesday (above) that a statue of John C. Calhoun cracked away from its pedestal after workers sawed and chiseled for 17 hours to free it.  

After Charleston City Council voted Tuesday night to take down the statue, work crews arrived shortly after midnight Wednesday to start the removal process. Originally, officials thought it would take a few hours to unattach the bronze statue from the 115-foot pedestal at Marion Square, but workers discovered they had to saw through a metal rod inserted more than a century ago to provide stability, particularly from hurricane-force winds. 

Throughout the day, hundreds stopped by to watch the workers’ progress.  Just after 5 p.m., the statue came down.  It then was loaded onto a truck and taken away.  Read more about what happened Wednesday.

Mayor John Tecklenburg talked with a reporter as workers struggled to take down the statue.

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