115 Meeting Street
City Directories and History: MILLS HOUSE HOTEL / Saint JOHN’S HOTEL
Constructed 1853; reconstructed 1968 John E. Earle, architect
Reconstructed on the site of the original Mills House, this reproduction was completed in 1968.
Courtesy of the Wingard Postcard Collection
“Otis Mills, a grain merchant and real estate developer, constructed the original in 1853. Mills, a native of Massachusetts, commissioned the architect John E. Earle, also an expatriate New Englander, to design the building, which contained the first large-scale running water and steam heat systems in the city. The five-story, 125-room hotel cost $200,000 to build and incorporated Philadelphia cast-iron balconies and New England terra cotta window cornices. The Mills House Hotel barely escaped the fire of 1861 and stood in its original configuration for over a century after the disaster. Remaining a splendid hostelry for most of the early-twentieth century, it was known as the St. John Hotel. By
Postcard image courtesy of the Revels Collection – 2015
1968 the original building was in a severe state of disrepair, and its new owners reluctantly demolished it. Although two stories were added in the reconstruction, architects carefully employed the original exterior design and used the nineteenth-century ironwork and some details from the first structure. Fiberglass copies replaced the original terra cotta window surrounds. The hotel opened for South Carolina’s tricentennial in 1970.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
In 1882, P. Monserrat advertised at #113 Meeting that he was a fashionable shoe and boot maker.
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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