Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object Type |
Property File |
Title |
54 Meeting Street (Timothy Ford House) |
Scope & Content |
Constructed ca. 1800-06; restored and renovated 1910, 1937, 1970s. By the early-19th century a newly constructed single house of sizable scale invariably included a side piazza with a screen as an entrance, as can be seen in this original arrangement at the Timothy Ford House, although the piazza columns appear to be Greek Revival and the doorway itself is a Neoclassical style example of the 20th century. Ford, who built the house, was an affluent attorney from Morristown, New Jersey, who came to Charleston after graduating from Princeton and went into practice with Chancellor Henry W. deSaussure. Ford lived in the now vanished tenement adjacent to deSaussure's at 58 Meeting Street until 1807 when he moved to this site purchased from Francis Mulligan. Raising their family here, the Fords entertained the Marquis de Lafayette in the house in 1824 during his triumphal revisit to the United States. Ford's daughter Louisa married Dr. Edmund Ravenel, a physician and pioneering American conchologist who built the small 1½ story building with weatherboarded siding at 52 Meeting Street as his office. The Ford house is a simple 3½ story stuccoed brick dwelling with a hipped slate roof; it is ornamented only by simple belt coursing on the front facade and a dentiled masonry cornice. On the interior, however, it retains extravagant Neoclassical woodwork in its first- and second-floor rooms. A substantial line of kitchen and carriage house buildings have been incorporated into the present dwelling through a series of restorations beginning in 1915. These buildings and several other small structures line adjacent Ford's Court, where John Bartlam, a colonial potter of note, once lived and operated a kiln. With the assistance of the late landscape architect Loutrel Briggs, the current owners established a noted new garden on the site including formal beds and an arbor. Three files contain documentation of the easement on the property (donated in 1992 and 2005) including related correspondence and Confirmation of Understanding; Part I certification (National Register); IRS form 8283; annual inspection report (1996); FOHG house histories (1949?, two undated [1980s?], 1993); FOHG garden history (2004); newspaper articles (including 1977 DYKYC); house history from Information for Guides of Historic Charleston; handwritten genealogical notes [scant] about Timothy Ford; photocopies of deeds/titles (1830, 1833, 1835, 1842, 1910, 1937); copy of 1964 plat; Zoning Board approval to subvidivide lot and build additions; photos of garden from Charleston Gardens by Loutrel Briggs. See Easement Documentation Photo Files for easement donation photographs (Exh. B to Deed of Conservation Easement) and Covenant/Easement Inspection Photo Files for inspection photography. |
Subjects |
Historic buildings--South Carolina--Charleston |
Search Terms |
Meeting Street Easement Property Loutrel Briggs garden |
Physical Description |
1 Gift Folder 1 Management Folder 1 History/Miscellaneous Folder |
Related Records |
Show Related Records... |
Object ID # |
MEETING.054.1 |