City Directories and History: (Walterboro’s Nullification House) “In the summer of 1823, Robert Barnwell Smith (who later changed name to Rhett in honor of his great-great-grandfather, Colonel Rhett) established a law practice in Walterboro with his cousin, Woodward Barnwell. In 1827 Rhett married Elizabeth Washington of Charleston. A family diary states: “…his Walterboro law office two-room cottage across the road to the East of the Court House while his home was a large two-story frame house across the road Western side.”
The house has double verandahs, each supported by six square with brackets and on the upper level a sawn balustrade. Interior chimneys rise from the sloping gable roof of the building. Built in the central plan, the facade is five bays wide. The doorway is flanked by a rectangular transom and sidelights. Windows are six over six (6/6) lights with blinds.
Robert Barnwell Rhett, “The Father of Secession,” used the Walterboro house only occasionally from 1837 until 1863, when he sold the property. In 1883 W. Swinton Bissell sold the property to Caleb Sauls, owner of room Vogler House Inn which burned in 1884. Benjamin Stuart, headmaster at Walterboro Academy, and his daughter, Claudia, librarian Walterboro Library Society, lived in the house for a short time.”
Information provided by Historic Resources of the Lowcountry, The Lowcountry Council of Government, Cynthia Cole, Preservation Planner – 1979
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