People's Bank Archives - Charleston County

15 St. Philips Street

City Directories and History: 1852 – J. J. Abrahams (Silk dyer and scourer)

JOHN S. RIGGS TENEMENTS – Constructed 1859-60; rehabilitated 1977

“John S. Riggs, organizer of Charleston’s horse-drawn streetcar system and president of the company when it merged with the Electric Railway Company, built these three identical houses and two others at 88-90 Wentworth Street shortly after acquiring four lots from the glebe of St. Philip’s Parish. The houses were finished by 1860 and rented to Octavius Willke, the Reverend Thomas O’Rice, and Elizabeth M. Archer. They followed the traditional Charleston single house pattern with a mix of Greek Revival and Italianate elements. The arched

windows and quoining reflect the former style, while the peaked ground-stone window heads and certain other features represent the latter. The interior is a similar mix of details, from Italianate mantels in the parlors to Greek Revival moldings and ceiling medallions in other rooms. The tenements were rehabilitated by the College of Charleston in 1977.” – Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston – Author, for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997

Note that in 1882 he also served on the Board of Directors of People’s National Bank of Charleston, S.C.

Greek Revival 1820 – 1860 Most Greek Revival style buildings have broad cornices, some featuring small windows at the frieze or attic level. Some Greek Revival style buildings have true temple form with massive, bold columns across the entire front façade. The columns may be rounded and topped with classical order capitals, or they may be square paneled posts. This temple form is more common on high style mansions or public buildings like banks, schools or government offices. Greek Revival style buildings can take several forms (even appearing occasionally as townhouses with strong columned front entries), but are most easily identifiable by the presence of a columned entry, a front facing gable or pediment, pilasters at the front façade corners, or a wide cornice with small windows. Courtesy of the Penn. Arch. Field Guide – Website

Italian Revival style was very prevalent within its period of popularity, more so than the Gothic Revival Style. It was especially dominant in the period from 1855 – 1880. Since it was easily adapted to numerous building forms, it became a popular style for urban and rural residences. The Italianate style is especially identified as the common architectural theme of mid-to late-19th century commercial buildings that lined the main street of many American cities and towns. Italianate buildings display the cornice under widely overhanging eaves, while contiguous Italianate rowhouses or commercial buildings have a bracketed cornice on the front façade. Other markers of the Italianate style are tall, narrow windows, some with elaborate hoods. Most Italianate buildings have columned porticoes or porches, sometimes extending across the full width of the front façade. Courtesy of the Penn Arch. Field Guide – Website

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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29 East Battery Street or PORCHER-SIMONDS HOUSE

City Directories and History: PORCHER-SIMONDS HOUSE
Constructed circa 1856; altered 1890s, 1940s; rehabilitated 1983

“Cotton broker Francis Porcher built this house a few years before the War Between the States in the same Greek Revival style as neighboring dwellings. John C. Simons, brother of the builder of the Villa Margherita at 4 South Battery, renovated the house in a mix of Beaux Arts Classicism and Renaissance Revival detailing after 1894 with paired columns on the square portico and a double- tiered semicircular front piazza. All of the side piazzas were enclosed during the Second World War, when the house was used by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence; John F. Kennedy occupied one of the offices. Once a single family dwelling, this house was converted into three condominiums in 1983.”

The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997

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The Porcher-Simonds House was built c. 1856 by Francis J. Porcher and enlarged and remodeled in the early 1890s by John C. Simonds. Porcher was a cotton broker and after the Civil War was president of the Atlantic Phosphate Company. He was delegate to the South Carolina Secession convention in 1860. Simonds, who purchased the house in 1894, was a native of Abbeville where his father, Andre Simonds, was a banker. The family moved to Charleston in 1865 and the elder Simonds organized the First National Bank. The younger Simonds was educated at Exeter and Yale and succeeded his father as president of the First National Bank. He sold the institution to the Peoples Bank in 1926. A friend later remarked that Simonds retired from banking at an auspicious time. The Simonds family sold the house in 1943. The house is depicted in an 1865 photograph as an Italianate style dwelling of two stories on a high basement with a pedimented center pavilion and masked piazza. Simonds remodeled the house in the Italian Renaissance Revival style popular in the 1890s, adding two front piazzas, one square and one semi-circular and a semi-oval wing on the south side of the house. The interior was also remodeled in the Renaissance Revival style, with an abundance of dark oak and mahogany finished woodwork, and two baronial staircases. (Stockton, unpub. M.S.) Courtesy of the Charleston Co Library

Early 20th century image of East Battery, courtesy of the White Family Collection – WU Pettus Archives

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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Please enjoy this structure and all those listed in Roots and Recall. But remember each is private property. So view them from a distance or from a public area such as the sidewalk or public road.

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18 – 22 Broad Street or People’s Building

Sholes’ Directory of the City of Charleston – 1882

The Yorkville Enquirer reported on July 6, 1871 – “The capital stock of the People’s National Bank of Charleston has been increased to $1,000,000.”

City Directories and History: PEOPLE’S BUILDING
Constructed 1910-11 Victor Frohling, architect (#’s 18 – 22 Broad Street)

“Mayor R. Goodwyn Rhett, while president of the People’s Bank, spearheaded the construction of the People’s Building as Charleston’s first skyscraper. It stands on the site of a late-eighteenth-century brick double tenement, an indication of the city’s early-twentieth-century progress. Critics then, as now, debated the effect of the eight-story structure on the skyline of the original city. Designed by the New York architect Victor Profiling, the largely yellow brick building has granite rustication on the ground and mezzanine stories and terra cotta ornamentation, now painted with a metallic finish, at the top floor, although a later owner removed the surmounting entablature. The columned portico and shuttered ground- story window openings of the People’s Building retain a

Demolished in 1909 when the property was incorporated into the parcel used to construct the People’s Trust Building. Image courtesy of the Kevin Eberle Collection – 2015

Charleston flavor, while the rest of the structure hints at the contemporary national influences. The marble lions flanking the entry, brought from an estate in Massachusetts in the 1950s, are considered landmarks in their own right and were saved from removal by the city’s Board of Architectural Review in 1990.”

Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997

An 1872 advertisement lists the following board members: John Hanckel, W.H. Houston, C.H. West, William A. Courtenay, W.Y. Leitch, C.L. Burckmeyer, J.B. E. Sloan, E. Lafitte, E.C. Williams, George A. Locke, J.H. Wilson, Williams Ufferhardt, J.B. Betts, James B. Betts.

*** The four-story building at 18 Broad Street was demolished in 1909 when the property was incorporated into the parcel upon which the People’s Trust Building was erected. (Written and submitted to R&R by Kevin Eberle – 2015)

STATE BANK associates in 1852 included: Edward Sebring, Pres., Henry Trescot, Cashier, and others: James H. Ladson, Samuel P. Ripley, George Gibbon, George M. Coffin, E.W. Bancroft, H.S. Hayden, H.A. Desaussure, MP. Mathiessen, John E. Cay, R. Mure, T. Trout, T.G. Budd, Benj. M. Lee, Hopson Pinckney, Lewis Jervey, James M. Bee, J.L. Egleston, John Bell Bee, H.A. Desaussure

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User comments welcome — post at the bottom of this page.

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

Please enjoy this structure and all those listed in Roots and Recall. But remember each is private property. So view them from a distance or from a public area such as the sidewalk or public road.

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Note the bill from Thomas’s Store in Ridgeway, S.C. is payable to J.B. E. Sloan, whose office is located at this site in 1899.

544 King Street – People’s State Bank of Charleston, S.C.

City Directories and History: The bank location known as C & S but originally that of the Peoples Bank of Charleston, S.C. Click on the More Information links to read about the importance and impact of Mr. Ramsey’s preservation work.

Courtesy of Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art: Rick Rhodes – photographer, Ronald Ramsey artist – preservationist, 2017.

Preservation Art at Work: Courtesy of Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art: Rick Rhodes – photographer, Ronald Ramsey artist – preservationist, 2017. (For the last several decades, native Charlestonian Ronald Wayne Ramsey has focused on meticulously documenting historical buildings—particularly those slated for demolition—in his hometown. As old buildings in the historically-minded city become condemned and readied for demolition, he secrets himself inside and liberates various seemingly mundane objects from their impending destruction. Such objects, like hinges, shutter dogs, decorative ironwork, doorknobs, and other ubiquitous building artifacts gain new relevance once they become part of his salvaged collection, which traces architectural styles from Charleston’s rich architectural legacy. Along with these objects, Ramsey creates fastidiously detailed drawings of old building facades in the city. Text from the Ahead of the Wrecking Ball Exhibit – 2017)

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Please enjoy this structure and all those listed in Roots and Recall. But remember each is private property. So view them from a distance or from a public area such as the sidewalk or public road.

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From the Porch

Southern Queries – Forum