City Directories and History: WILLIAM HOLMES HOUSE
Constructed circa 1791; renovated 1850s
William Holmes spent his youth in the house of his stepfather, John Edwards, at 15 Meeting Street. In 1784 Holmes purchased this lot, apparently vacant, and built on it shortly after his marriage to his stepsister, Margaret Edwards. After brief ownership by Anne Peronneau, kinswoman of the “martyred” patriot Isaac Hayne and of the heroine Rebecca Motte, occupant of the Miles Brewton House at 27 King Street, Nathaniel Ingraham acquired the property in 1799.
The Ingrahams may have added the double-tiered piazza and the Ionic-columned architrave of the piazza screen, as well as particularly exuberant composition work in the interior. After 1851 a new owner, the Reverend John Forrest, minister of First Scots Presbyterian Church, made minor changes. The relative purity of the Holmes House contrasts with the single house at 10 King Street, with its later siding and early-twentieth-century side portico.
The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
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