Wagner-Trott Building

Wagner-Trott Building. 30 State Street. Theodore D. Wagner, an executive with the leading mercantile firm John Fraser and Co., constructed the building soon after purchasing the property in 1866. At the time, much of the surrounding community was damaged from Union shelling during the Civil War. The Wagner-Trott Building replaced a one-story wooden store, built after the widening of State Street in 1812, that was most likely damaged by Union bombardment., The Wagner-Trott Building reflected the Italianate and Romanesque Revival architecural styles popular in the United States in the 1850s and 1860s. A 2017 restoration of the structure revealed the original arched elements of the first-floor windows and doors that were hidden as a result of repairs to structural damage caused by the earthquake of August 31, 1886. The building's visible iron tie rods, known as “earthquake bolts,” are evidence of the extensive stabilization necessary following the natural disaster., The intersection of Queen and State Streets was historically an active commercial district. Typical of the district, the Wagner-Trott Building was designed to accommodate a first-floor business as well as an upper-story living space for the city's working class. The first floor was occupied by a tavern for much of the building's history, consecutively operated by German, Irish, and Greek immigrants. During the Prohibition era, it served as a “blind tiger,” an establishment that produced and sold illegal alcohol. In the 1930s, the Wagner-Trott Building housed the Queen Street Lunchroom, a café dedicated to serving Charleston's segregated black community and from the 1940s to 1990s, the Joe Trott Antiques and Florist Shop.