| 1698 | Trv. Thomas Bray sent box of books to new colony |
| 1748 | Founding of the Charleston Library Society by seventeen young men |
| 1750 | C.L.S. institutionalized with officers and rules |
| 1754 | Charter granted for the C.L.S. by the King of England |
| 1759 | New rules and by-laws approved and ratified for the C.L.S. |
| 1778 | Fire destroyed majority of library (C.L.S.) |
| 1813 | Franklin Library Society |
| 1822 | Ramsay Library and Debating Society |
| 1823 | Edisto Library Society |
| 1824 | Apprentices' Library |
| 1829 | Incorporation of Trinitarian Library Society (church or subscription?) |
| 1830 | Bonneau Library Society founded by free Blacks in the antibellum South |
| 1837 | Incorporation of James Island Library Society |
| 1844 | Incorporation of Mercantile Library Association (subscription?) |
| 1850 | Census lists thirty-six thousand volumes in C.L.S. |
| 1851 | Revised constitution of Mercantile Library Association; twenty thousand volumes in C.L.S. |
| 1860 | Census lists twenty-thousand volumes in C.L.S. |
| 1870 | Census lists two circulating libraries of eleven hundred volumes in C.L.S. |
| 1874 | Merger of the Charleston Library Society with the Apprentices' Library |
| 1917 | Jockey Club established fund to buy and repair books |
| 1918 | Carnegie Grant of $5000. toward present building |
| 1931 | Founded as the first free library in Charleston |