Looking at Charleston
This column features residential, public, and church architecture on the Charleston peninsula. It is based on research that architectural historian Gene Waddell has amassed since 1976. Unlike most architectural scholars, Gene looks at buildings not from the point of view of their social history, but in terms of the buildings themselves: their sources of design, design features, materials, and methods of construction—all the things that the architects who designed them had to know when they conceived them. This unique perspective and wealth of information should be invaluable to residents and tourists—anyone who enjoys meandering downtown and gazing with a (very) well informed eye. Copyright Notice: all material in this series is the exclusive property of Gene Waddell. If you want to reuse any of it in any form, you must get permission in writing from chastoday@charlestontoday.net.
First Baptist Church
ROBERT MILLS, architect of First Baptist Church, described it as, “the best specimen of correct taste in architecture of the modern buildings in this city. It is purely Greek in its style, simply grand in its proportions, and beautiful in its detail.” He was mistaken only in its being purely Greek in style, but... Read »
Huguenot Church
GOTHIC WAS ONE of the latest styles introduced in antebellum Charleston, and decorative details of the Gothic style pervade the Huguenot Church at 136 Church Street. The highlights include pointed windows, pier buttresses (the extending supports on the outside of the church) with pinnacles, and simulated vaulting. Even the cast iron fence has Gothic... Read »
St. Philip’s Protestant Episcopal Church
THE CURRENT BUILDING at 146 Church Street is the third St. Philip’s Church. It is from an 1836 design by Joseph Hyde which partly replicates the second St. Philip’s that was constructed c. 1721–1733, but which burned in 1835. The exterior of the building closely follows the c. 1721 design, although the interior was... Read »
The Churches of Charleston
WHILE CHARLESTON’S historical homes and buildings continue to enchant residents and dazzle tourists, the city’s churches merit special attention and study. You can easily gaze at their designs and details for hours at a time and not see everything. Which is why repeat visits for repeated gazing always yield new treasures. But how is... Read »
Elihu Hall Bay House
76 Meeting Street • 1785 THE ALLEY ON ONE SIDE of this house, and a wide yard on the other, served as protective fire breaks. Single houses like this were often built of wood for coolness. The Duke de la Rochefoucault-Liancourt, commenting on the frequent preference for wood, and on the asymmetrical piazza, wrote... Read »
James Louis Petigru Law Office
8 St. Michael’s Alley • 1848-1849. James Louis Petigru, a lawyer who lived on Broad Street, hired Edward Brickell White to design an office large enough for a partner, clerks, and law library (which is now in the Library of Congress). This building replaced an existing law office that had been on the site.... Read »
Ann Peacock House
96 Church Street • c. 1760 Ann Peacock was prevented from building against the back wall of Mary Cooper’s house at 94 Church. She decided then to build her house on the opposite corner of her lot, a choice that enabled the eventual owner of the corner lot behind hers to build against her... Read »
Mary Cooper House
94 Church Street • c. 1760 The left side of this house is a largely blank wall with only two stair windows, but Mary Cooper could be certain that this back wall would not be tied into another house. Consequently it was given a dentil cornice and string course like the ones on the... Read »
Alexander Christie House
92 Church Street • c. 1809 The site for this house, which is wide enough to have accommodated a double house (like 87 Church Street, the Heyward-Washington House), shows that single houses were not necessarily preferred because of the narrowness of their lots. Actually, the original lots in the city were about 100 feet... Read »
Cabbage Row (Catfish Row)
89-91 Church Street • c. 1783 This row is a late but major example of a pair of houses with a central arcade and well-preserved, commercial ground floors. The row is similar to 83-85 Church Street, but is three-storied rather than two. The name “Cabbage Row” comes from cabbages and other vegetables that were... Read »
