[2][3] The arsenal was constructed between 1825 and 1832 by the United States government near the intersection of Ashley Avenue and Mill Street in Charleston.

It served as a storage place for weapons, ordnance, and ammunition for the U.S. Army in antebellum days.

South Carolina troops seized the arsenal in late December, and the Confederates held it for much of the war.

On July 16, 1866, the U.S. government designated the 11.26-acre (4.56 ha) site as a Federal Military Reservation, but in 1879 the Army closed the arsenal.

[5] On June 21, 1996, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Porter Military Academy.