The Gate at St. Michael’s

You don’t often see it because it is either open or the light behind it is too dark. Yet the design and workmanship of this gate distinguish it as one of the most eloquent in Charleston. The two top sections each have a central panel that looks like an elegant line drawing. Diaphanous, urn-like shapes float in the air surrounded by a beautiful and extremely well thought out pattern of delicate S-scrolls. The tear-drop crown atop each urn resembles a flame, suggesting that it could be a design in honor of the dead.

Front gate of St. Michael’s on Meeting Street

The lower panels are also delicate, but in a more elaborate motif of elongated S-scrolls tied together by a floral button—all of which gives requisite mass to the base.

Considering how much the upper and lower panels differ in their design, form, and finesse, it is tempting to think that two different artisans may have crafted them. And might the crown above the top beam, which is simpler in its design and heavier in its execution, have been done by yet a third hand (or been added later)?

Part of my purpose and pleasure with this blog is not necessarily to dig into all the details. My goal is to enjoy seeing—to pursue foremost the act of looking with awareness—and not be preoccupied with the exactness of historical context. Curiously, though, it is recorded that much of the older wrought-iron work in Charleston, including this gate at St. Michael’s, was done in the mid-19th century by two German-immigrant blacksmiths (Iusti and Werner). But it is also known that there was a third blacksmith (Ortmann). Would it not be interesting if this gate bears the signature of all three artisans?

Something else to appreciate is the vertical panel that runs down the middle of the gate, paralleling the design of the two side panels. This central strip is part of the right gate, which makes it wider than the left gate. But the perfect balance of the overall design hides the subtle difference. You can also walk around the corner on Broad Street—to the back side of the church—and see an exact, slightly more more worn duplicate of this gate.

Whoever created these masterpieces, they hang today resolutely for us to look at more than think about—perhaps in part to demonstrate that the most important thing a gate should do is not keep you out, but allow you in with supreme elegance and grace. ¶