City Directories and History: THEODORE GAILLARD (GAILLARD-BENNETT) HOUSE
Constructed 1800; restored 1992
“Rice planter and merchant Theodore Gaillard began to assemble the three lots on which he would build his residence in the spring of 1800. When the New Charleston Directory and Stranger’s Guide appeared in 1802, it noted that Gaillard had completed his house. He owned it for fifteen years, then sold it for $ 11,000 to Gen. Jacob Read during the depression that followed the War of 1812. Read died four years later. His estate sold the house in 1819 to James Shoolbred, a Santee River rice planter who was Charleston’s first British consul. It is likely that early in Shoolhred’s tenure (1819 until his death in 1851) he added the Regency style portico, the rusticated double entrance steps, and the robust quoining to the basement level. During his post war visit to Charleston, Gen. Robert E. Lee addressed well-wishers from the second level of the portico as a guest of the owner, Washington Jefferson Bennett.
The interior of this double house is one of Charleston’s best of the Federal period. Restored recently with great care, the structure contains elaborate plaster cornices and ceiling decorations and well-preserved examples of composition mantel decorations.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston – Author, 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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