City Directories and History: HUMPHREY SOMMERS HOUSE
Constructed circa 1765; additions 1790- 1800, 1840s
“Charleston’s most noted eighteenth- century builder-contractor constructed the original section of this L-shaped wooden dwelling on a raised masonry foundation on a point overlooking “Councellair’s Creek” (now long filled) and the marshes of the Ashley River in 1765.
Immigrating to Charleston from the west of England as a “slater,” Humphrey Sommers prospered with commissions, one of which was as chief subcontractor of St. Michael’s Church. Sommers fully utilized some of the best work of independent craftsman carvers on the interior of the house, which he built on a lot that may have been acquired through the dowry of his wife, Susanna. The interior woodwork, particularly the parlor chimney piece with extensive rococo style carving, has become famous in recent years and was reproduced in the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston Salem, North Carolina, as a hallmark of a Charleston room. The exterior of the house retains its original pedimented window surrounds with console supported sills, weatherboard siding, wide entablature with a modillioned cornice, and a bellcast slate roof. A central projection from the east elevation provides a stair hall on the interior and contains an elaborate Venetian (Palladian) window. A portico may have graced the south elevation, but a Tuscan-columned piazza was added in the nineteenth century. Sommers rose to be a member of the Commons House of Assembly by 1762 and achieved sufficient wealth to leave a substantial estate of town and country property at his death in 1789. Judge Edward Frost purchased 128 Tradd Street in 1841, and the house has remained in the hands of his descendants ever since.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
Other sources of interest: Charleston Tax Payers of Charleston, SC in 1860-61 and the Dwelling Houses of Charleston by Alice R.H. Smith – 1917 The HCF may also have additional data at: Past Perfect and further research can be uncovered at: Charleston 1861 Census Schedule or The Charleston City Guide of 1872
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