In 1842 the South Carolina Military Academy, a liberal arts military college, was established by the state legislature, and the school took over the arsenal the following year as one of 2 campuses, the other being the Arsenal Academy in Columbia, South Carolina.

From 1865 to 1881, during Reconstruction, Federal troops occupied the Citadel, and the school was closed.

Classes resumed in 1882 and continued in this building until the school was relocated to a new campus on the banks of the Ashley River in 1922.

Frederick Wesner and Edward Brickell White are credited with the Citadel's design.

This article about a property in Charleston County, South Carolina on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.