St. Michael's was built between 1751 and 1761 at the corner of Broad and Meeting Streets, by order of the South Carolina Assembly. It stands on the site of an original wooden church from 1681. It is the oldest surviving religious structure in Charleston.
It sits on one of the Four Corners of Law and represents ecclesiastical law. Its two-story porch was the first of its size in colonial America, and has Tuscan columns. No one knows who designed it, but it shows the influence of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.
George Washington worshipped in pew number 43 during his 1791 visit. The church has a window made by Tiffany Studios in 1898. In 1865 shells from the Civil War damaged the wall. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1961.