The mysterious Dead House at the Old Navy Base in North Charleston, South Carolina, has stumped historians for years. Today, it’s believed to be off-limits, but many have wondered whether the building was once a mausoleum to store bodies or a powder magazine.
Looking at the reinforced style of the building and its materials, English bond brown bricks and old mortar, suggests that it was a powder magazine. Its location is on historically high land near the Cooper River.
The Navy called it the Dead House, and that name appears on a 1895 survey of the area. The land it sits on was once a plantation, and Navy Architect Randy Guy’s research identified 15 different landowners from the first land grant in 1672 through 1895.
While I can find no credible online sources to confirm whether the small historic structure is haunted, we do know it’s mysterious and part of history that many don’t know about.
Written By John G. Clark Jr.
