Name/Title
116 Broad Street (John Rutledge House)Entry/Object ID
BROAD.116.001Scope and Content
Constructed ca. 1763; altered ca. 1853, 1890; rehabilitated 1988-89. When constructed, this building had a Georgian facade that lacked the ornate ironwork and Greek Revival details employed in the design today. John Rutledge, "Dictator" and governor of South Carolina during the Revolution, built this house before 1770 for his wife Elizabeth Grimké. Rutledge went on to serve as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and held a brief, unconfirmed term as chief justice before illness hastened his demise in 1800. The house passed through a number of different owners from the 1790 until 1835, when it served briefly as the last residence of Charleston's first Roman Catholic bishop, Rev. John England. Thomas Norman Gadsden, a wealthy slave trader, was responsible for the renovations of the Rutledge House in 1853 and added terra cotta window lintels to the exterior as well as the intricate cast-ironwork, utilizing P.H. Hammarskold as his architect. Hammarskold, a native of Sweden, was then working on the new statehouse in Columbia. The cast-ironwork, executed by Charleston's German-born blacksmith Christopher Werner, includes palmetto and eagle designs in the end columns as well as acanthus and anthemion motifs popular in the late-Greek Revival period. In the late 19th century, the house served as the residence of Mayor R. Goodwin Rhett. Supposedly, Rhett entertained President William Howard Taft here during his visit in 1909, and William Deas, the butler, introduced his famous she-crab soup at this time. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains FOHG house history (1995); newspaper articles (including DYKYC); copy of photograph of building presumably under renovation (scaffolding present); house history from CCPL Multimedia Project Guidebook (website); National Register Nomination Form; narrative history from "A Brief History of U.S. District Courthouses in South Carolina."Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
BROAD.116.Source or Donor
116 Broad Street (John Rutledge House)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Broad Street, Inns, 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 15Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
2011.002.100, 2011.015.70, 2011.022.23a-b, 2017.005.19, 2020.005.30, BROAD.116.002a-c, BROAD.116.003, BROAD.116.004, BROAD.116.005, BROAD.116.006, BROAD.116.007a-h, BROAD.116.008a-dRelated Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 206Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
February 1, 2006Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023