A Brief History of the Padgett-Thomas Barracks at The Citadel

If you march over to the Citadel and take a tour of the grounds, you can’t help but be struck by the glorious white building situated as a focal point of the landscape. The Padgett-Thomas Barracks, also known as “Second Battalion, Padgett-Thomas Barracks,” is named for Col. J.G. Padgett (1892 graduate) and Col. John Pulaski Thomas (1893 graduate).

Featured on the college logo and the architectural focus of the campus, it was the first building erected on the new Citadel campus with its extraordinary water tower soaring above the original P-T Barracks (the quadrangle). It maintains a symmetrical approach on either side of the building surrounding the tower. The Barracks was originally constructed in 1922, based on the design of Lockwood, Greene Engineers of Atlanta with aide from Coolidge and Shattuck Architects of Boston.

Original 1920 plans included space for a Literary Society; rooms for: infantry/artillery armories, lumber, recreation, and games; shops: barber, carpenter, and quartermaster store. As it was the first building constructed, it had to house these other facilities besides just having rooms for cadets. A cadet room measured 10' x 17' with plastered ceilings and walls with wood floors and a single-window facing outside. The remaining 207 rooms of the barracks housed 483 cadets in those days. Rather than the 11 stories that had been planned (standing 203'), the final 20s construction stood only 8 stories and 109' in height.

The water tower featured a water tank made of steel-banded cypress boards. Legend has it that the crafty cadets made way up to the top and went for midnight dips in the water tank, leaving their marks of graffiti behind as evidence.

In August 2000, structural instability forced the original barracks to close. Building demolition took place in the summer of 2001. Construction began shortly thereafter in 2002. And, in 2004, the current iteration of the Padgett-Thomas Barracks was completed. The new barracks are a replica of the original building, save for the materials used to ensure current codes and safety standards have been met. The new barracks house 560 cadets in 265 rooms.

The footprint of the old and new barracks is exactly the same-- the major difference is that the water tower, originally containing unusable space, is now used for meeting spaces, thus increasing the interior square footage from 102,696 to 112,335!

These barracks are steeped in tradition and continue to maintain much Charleston history. Even on the rebuild, mostly local builders and suppliers were utilized from the electrical down to the concrete (22,000 tons of it to be exact) and the communications, flooring, glass (425 windows are contained within the walls) and the paint (250 gallons of red and white paint make up the checkerboard design found on the quadrangle) covering it all.

Artisans of the Lowcountry attended to this two-year rebuild project whose funding of around $28 million came from a combination of state and federal dollars and when completed was dedicated on Friday, September 24, 2004.

Take some time and walk in the footsteps of many former famous residents of the Padgett-Thomas Barracks which boasts former Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. ('64), former University of South Carolina President John Palms ('58), former U.S. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings ('42) among many countless others!

The Padgett-Thomas Barracks are a symbol of “strength, timelessness, and passage.” And, if you look hard enough... that graffiti from the old water tower? It just might have been preserved and just might still be seen in the wooden planks of the tower meeting room. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Check it out for yourself!

~ Kristen N. Granet