William A. Courtenay Archives - Charleston County

City Directories and History: MAYOR WILLIAM A. COURTENAY HOUSE Constructed before 1852

“Mayor William Ashmead Courtenay purchased this three-and-a-half-story Charleston single house from a trustee acting for Henry Sterling Lebby and his wife, Susan Ann, in 1870. Theodore Jervey probably built the original Greek Revival style house in the 1840s, conveying it to Lebby in the mid-1850s. Courtenay, who came to office in 1879, served as mayor of Charleston at a crucial time in its history. While modernizing city government, he greatly improved the area with new parks, fire and police stations, and a renovated city hall. He envisioned a quality expansion of the city into the northern portion of the peninsula and worked for its recovery after the hurricane of 1885 and the earthquake of 1886. Basically a Greek Revival single house in form, the structure has triple-tiered piazzas that once overlooked a large garden, which was subdivided in the twentieth century. Although the piazzas and the pilastered door screen survive, the front facade of the dwelling was renovated after the earthquake of 1886 with a two-story projecting bay and triple front windows on both levels. The parapeted brick gable was reduced to create a bracketed roof overhang in the Italianate manner. Although rehabilitated many years ago as an apartment, the original separate kitchen dependency survives at 51.5 Montagu Street.”

R&R HISTORY LINK: NEWRY MANUFACTURING CO

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

Also see two other R&R links to Courtenay: Charleston Museum and Newry Mill

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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R&R HISTORY LINK: PELZER MANUFACTURING CO

R&R HISTORY LINK: ANOTHER CONNECTION

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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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.

Thanks!

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.

95 Ashley Avenue – William A. Courtenay House

18 – 22 Broad Street or People’s Building

From the Porch

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