Charleston City Market is a series of commercial spaces starting from the Market Hall to the continuous one-story market sheds stretching to about four city blocks from the docks of Charleston Harbor all the way to Meeting Street. The market is situated at a strip of land donated by a Revolutionary War general Charles Cotesworth Pinckney in 1788, who stipulated that a public market be built on the site and that it should remain in use as a public market into perpetuity.

In 1692, the ?Beef Market? building, Charleston's first public market was established at the corner of Broad and Meeting streets. In 1796, a more attractive building replaced the ?Beef Market? and soon after, new markets for fish and general merchandise were set up along Vendue (Queen) and Tradd streets. In 1788, on the grounds of the land given by General Pinckney, the Center Market emerged. The first of the small market sheds flourished in the Center Market at around 1790 and by 1806 they have occupied most of the strip from the harbor to Meeting Street. When the ?Beef Market? building burned in 1796, it was transferred to the Centre Market which in its early years was primarily a place to sell foodstuffs, and was subdivided into sections for beef, fish, and farm produce. It was not just a selling place; the market was also a spot for city's lower and middle class residents to gather for drinking and playing games. Vultures, which feast on discarded meat scraps thrown out to the streets by meat butchers, were a usual encounter at the market until the 20th century.

In 1838, a fire burnt down the City Market?s head-house and in 1841, the Market Hall was finalized and has been described as a building of the "highest architectural design?. Made of Greek Revival-style, the hall is comprised of a high base with a rusticated open ground-level arcade and a landing with a frontal portico or entranceway. Seen on the entryway are four Doric columns that support the entablature (superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns) and pediment. The entryway is accessible through two stairs decorated with iron works. The Hall was originally used by the Market Commissioners for meetings, social functions and space rental underneath.

Through the years, the Market Hall and the City Market sheds have survived many disasters, including fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and bombardment and because of its historic significance, the entire market complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The City Market, one of the oldest in the country, is significant enough to be part of a permanent exhibit entitled ?Life in Coastal South Carolina c. 1840? at the American History Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.