City Directories and History: JAMES L. PETIGRU LAW OFFICE
Constructed 1848; restored after 1918, 1983-84
“Designed by the architect Edward B. White, this law office was built by the famed jurist James Louis Petigru on this site by 1849. Petigru, born in Abbeville, moved his practice to Charleston in 1819. He later served as attorney general of South Carolina and as a member of the House. Defender of the liberties of the weak, particularly slaves and free blacks, Petigru opposed nullification and was Charleston’s most outspoken unionist at the time of secession. After his residence on Legare and Broad Streets burned in the fire of 1861, Petigru and his wife moved into this building. According to an 1850s plat, Petigru’s walled garden stood directly opposite.
The Petigru law office boasts some characteristics of Neoclassical design, out-of-fashion in the 1840s, with its brownstone window lintels and central pediment with a lunette window in the tympanum. The wrought-iron balcony with cast-iron panels was salvaged from a demolished building and installed by Susan Pringle Frost during her restoration of the area.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
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