The first to grow Sea Island cotton…. Pettus
City Directories and History: (William Elliot House) The builder of this pre-Revolutionary house was Ralph Elliott, who willed it to his nephew, William, a prosperous planter in the district and a member of a prominent family which had been in the colony since the 1690s. In 1772 William Elliott was a representative to The Commons House of Assembly. Prior to the Civil War his grandson, William Elliott III, author, politician, agriculturist and poet occupied the house. During the occupation of Beaufort the house was used as a hospital and designated the “Mission House.” In 1876, General Wade Hampton spoke to the people of Beaufort from the porch. The house has five floors including a ground floor and an attic. It is built of white clapboard on a four-foot wide tabby foundation. Across the front extended a wide piazza with six simple columns. A wide hall with two large rooms on each side leads from the front to the back on each floor. In 1891 Admiral Beardsley bought the house, named it “The Anchorage” and spent approximately $80,000 remodeling, adding stucco to the exterior and ornate carved woodwork to the exterior and to the interior. A second story piazza was built and the simple columns were exchanged for Corinthian. Listed in the National Register November 23, 1971. [Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History]
“William Elliott built this three-story tabby house prior to the American Revolution. The house is five bays wide in the “AABAA” configuration. Originally, a one-story porch spanned the facade of the Elliott House. First- and second-floor windows are nine over nine (9/9) lights with exterior blinds, and third-floor windows are six over six (6/6) lights. A gabled pediment in the hip roof rises above the three central bays.
William Elliott III (1788-1863) owned the house at the time of the Civil War. William Elliott graduated from Harvard in 1810 with an A.B. and an M.A. in 1815. His unionist views wrecked his political ambitions and he turned to literature. In 1846 his Carolina Sports by Land and Water was published in Charleston. It went through three publications before Elliott’s death in 1863. In 1850 the large house on the bay at Beaufort was valued at $10,000. The South Carolina commissioner to the Paris Exposition in 1855 was William Elliott.
At the turn of the twentieth century a retired naval officer, Admiral Beardsly, purchased the Elliott house and renamed it “The Anchorage.” He spent $80,000 remodeling both the interior and exterior. The porch was to a full two stories, supported by six Corinthian order columns. The Adam style interior was altered to the heavier Victorian style. Oak paneling, brick mantles, frescoed ceilings and the first elevator in Beaufort were installed during the remodeling.
“The Anchorage” is being adaptively used as a restaurant.”
Information from: Historic Resources of the Lowcountry, The Lowcountry Council of Government, Cynthia C. Jenkins, Preservation Planner – Published, 1979
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