Housing the city’s first hotel, this building was constructed for Charleston native Eleazer Early, who leased the first floor for use as a restaurant, a branch of the Bank of the United States, and the city’s first post office (Early served as postmaster). The simple four-story, seven-bay-wide structure stands above a full basement, which is typical of buildings on Bay Street. Its original interior (well preserved on the second floor) boasted ample circulation, large rooms, and rich decoration, making it one of the finest hostelries in the Southeast during the first half of the nineteenth century. Among its guests the hotel counted William Henry Harrison, the Marquis de Lafayette, John James Audubon, and the first three commodores of the U.S. Navy. Typical of older commercial buildings, it has seen a wide variety of subsequent uses and tenants, including lumber and coal storage, a printing company, and currently a brewery. This block contains one of the best-preserved ensembles of early-nineteenth-century buildings in downtown, with numbers 5–11 dating to c. 1820 and the sizable corner building at number 1 dating to 1819 (enlarged in 1847). The adjacent beer garden, designed by Kevin Rose at Lominack Kolman Smith Architects, was added in 2013.