Perhaps the first tangible effort at restoration of the Exchange as the living museum that it is today came in 1965. Charlestonian C. Harrington Bissell’s interest in the Provost resulted in a lease from the Rebecca Motte Chapter. With Thomas E. Thornhill, Bissell took on the ambitious project of returning the cellars to their condition in colonial days. He wanted to illustrate the outstanding role South Carolina played in world trade and government during the colonial period and the American Revolution.

Upon entering the basement, Bissell found various junk, an old furnace, a cistern and much debris. No one was sure what lay beneath the accumulation of centuries. After the initial clean-up, a twentieth-century wooden floor was removed in hopes of finding some original flooring. When two more levels were removed, the original underlying brick was discovered.

Revealing the floor brought a new unknown to light: The brickwork covered a large, mysterious mound. Bissell was curious, yet careful, and called for professional help. E. milby Burton, Director of the Charleston Museum, guided the research efforts, and John Miller, an expert digger, was employed.

When the mysterious mound was finally excavated, the puzzling hump turned out to be a portion of the Half-Moon Battery. Buried for almost two centuries, the original wall of Charles Town stood exposed. The digging also yielded many artifacts which demonstrated the commercial importance this city was known to have in pre-Revolutionary times.

--Miller, Ruth M. and Andrus, Ann Taylor. Witness to History: Charleston’s Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. Orangeburg, South Carolina: Sandlapper Publishing, Inc., 1986.

In 1965, another important part of the harbor side fortifications was unearthed beneath the Old Exchange Building (1771). The construction of the Half-Moon Battery of a brick work atop a grillage foundation matches that of the Granville Bastion. This massive battery originally curved out toward the water providing the formal entrance to the town. Behind the Half-Moon were constructed the city watch tower and the Palace at Arms or armory. Past these buildings, new arrivals to the town found themselves on the Broad Way (now Broad Street), the principle east-west thoroughfare which connected the Half-Moon Battery to the land side entrance to the town at Johnson’s ravelin.

--Saunders, Katherine. Another’s Country: Archaeological and Historical Perspective on Cultural Interactions in the Southern Colonies (The Walled City of Charles Town: The Fortified Beginnings of a Unique Urban Landscape). Edited by J.W. Joseph and Martha Zierden. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2001.