Completed in 1867, the South Carolina Penitentiary served as the primary state prison for nearly 130 years until its demolition in 1999.

It was located adjacent to the Congaree River in Columbia, South Carolina and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 4, 1996.

In the 1870s, after Wade Hampton III was elected Governor of South Carolina, the board members and superintendents made the penitentiary largely self-sufficient by leasing convict labor.

[3] Because of negative press coverage of the deaths of prisoners leased to external companies, South Carolina began using convict labor within the confines of the penitentiary.

In 1917, the hosiery mill was converted to a furniture factory operated by the Fiber Craft Chair Company.

In May 1922, anger at harsh living conditions in the penitentiary sparked a riot by convicts working in the furniture factory.

The state was ordered in 1990 by a federal judge to create a prisoner-reduction plan to remedy the problem.

When Pee Wee Gaskins served as an inmate at the penitentiary he famously blew up a fellow prisoner with a plastic explosive.

In 1999, the same year the Penitentiary closed, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled the requirement was constitutional.

[12] North Wing stood five stories tall, built from granite with the tops of the walls crenellated.

It would later evolve into a more diverse institution, including a hospital and separate blocks for females and juvenile inmates.

[1] From 1912 to 1990, death row was housed at the State Penitentiary changing over historically to Central Correctional Institution in Columbia.

Prior to shutting down the penitentiary, the death house was moved to a newer facility at Broad River Correctional Institution, in January 1990.

[13] Before the South Carolina Penitentiary closed, 243 people were executed by electric chair within the prison.