United States entered the World War the Exchange by unanimous vote of the D.A.R. was tendered the Federal government which it used to the end of the conflict. On the centennial of George Washington’s death a handsome bronze tablet on the west side of the Exchange was unveiled. There is no question that this ante-Revolutionary building is one of Charleston’s greatest landmarks. [Illustration: _First (Scotch) Presbyterian Church_] [Illustration: _Bethel Methodist Church_] SITE OF INSTITUTE HALL, _134 Meeting Street_: South Carolina declared itself free and independent, seceding from the United States, December 20, 1860. This bold act was taken in the hall of the South Carolina Institute. The _Ordinance of Secession_ had been adopted in the hall of the St. Andrew’s Society, 118 Broad Street, but the delegates came to the Institute Hall because of its greater capacity; the wish was to accommodate as many as possible of the thousands who hoped to see the ordinance signed. With the great hall crowded to suffocation, after all the signatures had been affixed, President Jamison advanced to the front of the rostrum and announced, that South Carolina was an independent sovereignty, free of the United States. And the War for Southern Independence was nascent. In this hall several months before had been held the famous Democratic National Convention that adjourned without decision with respect to candidates for President and Vice President. On the site are published _The News and Courier_, one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States, founded in 1803, with its roots going back to 1786, and the _Charleston Evening Post_. They carry on the traditions of the South.