“The Samuel Adams of the South” – by Richard Walsh
City Directories and History: GADSDEN-MORRIS HOUSE
Constructed circa 1800; partially restored 1960
“One of the tallest and most finely detailed of Charleston’s Federal houses, this side-hall plan dwelling was built after 1798 on land formerly owned by Christopher Gadsden. Although traditionally called the Gadsden House, the building was probably built by Thomas Morris, a Gadsden son-in-law whose name appears on the lot on the 1790s map of this portion of Middlesex; Philip Gadsden is shown on the same map as living at 328 East Bay Street. The property had subsequent owners of prominence, including Col. Elnathan Haskell, a Revolutionary War hero; Dr. Benjamin Bonneau Simons, an outstanding medical practitioner; and, after the Civil War, the Right Reverend W. B. W. Howe, Episcopal bishop of South Carolina. The building has fine brickwork as well as important carved marble key-stones, window sills, and door architrave, along with surviving Neoclassical wooden elements. The present iron gates were designed in a collaboration between Samuel G. Stoney, architectural historian, and Philip Simmons, noted Charleston ironworker. The gates remain some of Simmons’s most important works. This house was given to Historic Charleston Foundation by a Gadsden descendant in 1959.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston 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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