Atmospheric Determinants of the Old South: See PDF this page…
City Directories and History: JAMES MISSROON HOUSE / Historic Charleston Foundation Headquarters
Constructed 1789; altered with additions 1907, 1925
“A small brick edifice, owned by the English merchant Harry Grant in the late- eighteenth century, passed briefly through the Kinloch family and then the Fraser family before Capt. James Missroon purchased the property in 1808. Missroon, a native of Londonderry, and his descendants, involved in maritime trade, built the major portion of the building that stands today and occupied it for fifty years. During this time the family amalgamated adjacent properties and added a two- story dependency connected by a hyphen to the main house.
The original dwelling, the central portion of the present structure, includes a third-story lunette window surmounting a pedimented, tripartite window on the second story, an elliptical fan lighted doorway on the ground story, and stucco quoining. First converted to a boarding house known as the Shamrock Terrace, the building sustained extensive damage in the hurricane of 1911. Purchased by the Omar Shrine (a fraternal Masonic order) for its temple in 1925, Charleston restoration architects Simons and Lapham converted the house, adding a three-story section to the north and wrapping brick columned piazzas on the south and east, surmounted by an expanded third story; these new piazzas were later enclosed. During this work the remains of the Granville Bastion were uncovered; these were left intact. The house is now the headquarters of Historic Charleston Foundation and under long-term restoration.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
The 1850 City Directory of Charleston, S.C. states that John Davis who lived at #2 Hudson Street., worked approximately here as a clerk.
Other sources: Charleston Tax Payers of Charleston, SC in 1860-61, Dwelling Houses of Charleston by Alice R.H. Smith – 1917, Charleston 1861 Census Schedule, and a 1872 Bird’s Eye View of Charleston, S.C. The Hist. Charleston Foundation may also have additional data at: Past Perfect
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