Name/Title
69 Barre Street (Gov. Thomas Bennett House, a/k/a 1 Lucas Street)Entry/Object ID
BARRE.069.001Scope and Content
Constructed ca. 1822, formerly 1 Lucas Street. This is the ambitious house of one of Charleston's wealthiest and most progressive antebellum residents. Thomas Bennett Jr. followed his father and namesake in the operation of the family's lumber and rice milling industries that surrounded this house. Although the vast mill pond with its floodgates and causeways, the lumber mill buildings, and the manager's house have disappeared, the Bennett residence survives as a testament to the family's prominence. Bennett served as governor of SC from 1820 to 1822 as well as various terms in the General Assembly, and continued to urge industrial and social progress for his native state. A curving marble stair approaches the raised door architrave leading to the south-facing piazza entry of the Bennett House. This architrave and the main door architrave within the piazza feature semicircular fanlights and elaborate surrounds with pilasters and modillioned cornices. Pediments with lunette windows project from the roof on the north and south elevations, while the closed front end gable features a Venetian (Palladian) window. The splendid exterior woodwork, created from wood produced in the Bennett mills and probably by their own carpenters, hints at the exceptional interior, which boasts a 2-story free-flying staircase, marble mantelpieces and elaborate plaster cornices and ceiling medallions. In the late 19th century, E.L. Halsey became the owner of the remaining lumber mills as well as the house. After serving various uses after its sale by the Halseys following World War I, the building was restored by the Roper Foundation in 1988. Subsequently, the garden was renewed with a new plan and the kitchen and slave-quarters dependencies to the west were rehabilitated as guest accommodations. The remarkable wooden fence, with its columnar post topped by spherical finials, has remained, as have the wooden gates with a guilloche decoration. Formerly Lucas Street, the street name was changed to Barre Street when the thoroughfare was extended to Broad Street in the 1950s. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains FOHG house history (1992); house history from Information for Guides of Historic Charleston; newspaper articles including DYKYC (3/27/1978) and "Couple Adds Panache to Historic House (1/29/1989); brief article from Preservation Progress about possible demolition threat (undated); handwritten research notes and photocopies of historical documentation about the house and the Bennett family; photocopies of photos of the house; National Register Nomination Form; correspondence and research material regarding renovations (mortars).Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
BARRE.069.Source or Donor
69 Barre Street (Gov. Thomas Bennett House)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Barre Street, Harleston Village, Lucas Street, National Register of Historic Places, Historic buildings--South Carolina--CharlestonArchive Details
Archive Size/Extent
1 File FolderArchive Notes
Finding Aids: Index to Property Files.
Level of Description: FolderLocation
Location
Shelf
Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentDate
February 7, 2023Location
Container
PF Box 7Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
2006.005.005-006, 2011.015.108a-d, BARRE.069.002a-d, BARRE.069.003, BARRE.069.004Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 489-490Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
August 30, 2005Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 16, 2023