Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object Type |
Property File |
Title |
43 East Bay Street (George Sommers House) |
Scope & Content |
Constructed ca. 1755; restored 1935. This house lies very close, if not immediately adjacent, to the site of the original city wall and was constructed on a portion of Grand Modell Lot No. 1. Adam Daniel conveyed this lot, inherited from his father, to George Sommers with a "tenement" in 1755. Stylistically the house seems to date from the mid-18th century, particularly due to the profiles of the moldings in its 2nd-floor rooms and the paneling in its 1st-floor dining room. A surviving plat shows the layout of the single house and its extensive 2-story outbuildings to the rear of the lot; these structures still survive. Formerly this building, like many Charleston single houses, maintained an entrance on the street facade and a front ground-floor room for commercial purposes. In the early 19th century the door was closed and the piazzas added, as was the late Federal style piazza door screen. The bend in East Bay just beyond this lot led the area to be known in the 1700s as Sommers Corner. This very bend impelled the builder of the Sommers House to follow the diagonal of the street in the construction of the front facade. Passing through several prominent merchant families, including those of John Teasdale, a British officer who became the first Charleston factor to ship cotton to Europe, and John Fraser, founder of the important mercantile firm Fraser and Trenholm, the dwelling suffered from deterioration in the early-20th century. Elizabeth Hanahan, a pioneering realtor in Charleston, restored the house in 1935 as her family's residence, with the assistance of preservation architects Albert Simons and Samuel S. Lapham. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.) Files contain documentation of the easement on the property; property appraisal; FOHG house history (ca. 1982, 2003); house history from Information for Guides of Historic Charleston; house history from Vernacular Architecture of Charleston & the Lowcountry; occupancy history from Old Codgers' Charleston Address Book; architectural history on the kitchen/laundry/quarters by Edward Chappel (1997); photocopy of early 20th century photograph; plat (1796); historical/chain-of-title research notes; architectural drawing; graduate student report (Christopher Ohm, 2005) on the history of the building/property, including deeds, wills, plats, chain-of-title and maps; newspaper article (DYKYC); tour notes and research on the outbuildings and the enslaved persons in preparation for HCF's "Beyond the Big House Tour" (HCF, 2017). Files will eventually contain additional documentation such as annual inspection reports; requests for alterations; correspondence related to the management of the property; correspondence and other documentation related to the sale of the property; etc. See Easement Documentation Photo Files for easement donation photographs (Exh. B to Deed of Conservation Easement). See Manager of Easements for annual inspection photographs. |
Subjects |
Historic buildings--South Carolina--Charleston Outbuildings--South Carolina--Charleston |
Search Terms |
East Bay Street Easement Property |
Physical Description |
1 Gift Folder 1 Management Folder 2 History/Miscellaneous Folders |
Related Records |
Show Related Records... |
Object ID # |
EBAY.043.1 |