One of the great scenic visuals on my walking tours of historic Charleston is the Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. This Gothic-Revival brownstone structure was begun in 1890 to replace another brownstone Gothic Revival cathedral on the same site that was finished in 1854, but burned seven years later. Although the second church was designed by the same architect, Patrick Keel, it was not completed for more than a century because of lack of funds, and the steeple finally added in 2010 was 50 feet shorter than the 216-foot spire of the original.
