City Directories and History: REV. PAUL TRAPIER GERVAIS HOUSE – Constructed circa 1835; restored with addition 1995-97
“In 1835 the Reverend Gervais apparently reused the foundation and basement story of an eighteenth-century house built by the organist and composer Benjamin Yarnold. Standing three and a half stories above the basement, the simple frame, Greek Revival dwelling retains its original double-tiered Tuscan-columned piazza and simple Greek Revival entry architrave and piazza screen. The original lot measured 300 feet in depth, 280 feet today. Succeeding owners included the Robinson, Memminger, Rhett, and Gaud families. In the 1890s Capt. Thomas Pinckney and his wife Camilla Scott Pinckney rented the Gervais House. Here in 1895 their daughter, Josephine Pinckney, a nationally renowned writer and poet, was born.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
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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