1 East Battery (Louis Desaussure House)

Archive

-

Historic Charleston Foundation

1 East Battery, ca. 1893

1 East Battery, ca. 1893

Name/Title

1 East Battery (Louis Desaussure House)

Entry/Object ID

EBATTERY.001.1

Scope and Content

Constructed ca. 1858-60; altered ca. 1898; rehabilitated 1970s. The scion of a leading plantation family in Beaufort, Thomas Coffin, owned this lot, deeding it in 1858 to Louis deSaussure, who built this substantial 3-story, late Greek Revival style house with Italianate elements a decade before the Civil War. Wartime photographs show the building with its current triple-tiered piazzas but with simpler window detailing. Before the war, deSaussure and his neighbors seem to have joined in the construction of a lengthy coping wall with stuccoed piers and surmounting balustrade. The curved sections in front of 1 East Battery and that before 5 East Battery have survived. Bernard O'Neill, a wealthy wholesale grocer, bought the house in 1888 and added the cast-iron balconies and the window and door surrounds, as well as an elaborate pressed-metal cornice and balustrade (now removed). Owned briefly by Mrs. Robert E. Lee III (formerly Mary Middleton Pinckney, a native of Charleston), the house passed through several owners before becoming 3 condominiums, as it stands today. File contains FOHG house history (undated); newspaper articles (including DYKYC); copy of photo from "Resources & Attractions of Charleston" (ca. 1898).

Collection

Historic Charleston Foundation Property Records

Acquisition

Accession

EBATTERY.001.

Source or Donor

1 East Battery (Louis Desaussure House)

Acquisition Method

Collected by Staff

Lexicon

Search Terms

East Battery, Historic buildings--South Carolina--Charleston

Legacy Lexicon

Object Name

Property File

Archive Details

Archive Size/Extent

1 File Folder

Archive Notes

Finding Aids: Index to Property Files Level of Description: Folder

Location

Location

Shelf

Property File Shelves

Room

Margaretta P. Childs Archives

Building

Missroon House

Category

Permanent

Date

February 7, 2023

Location

Container

PF Box 32

Shelf

Prop File Shelves, Property File Shelves

Room

Margaretta P. Childs Archives

Building

Missroon House

Category

Permanent

Location

Container

2

Shelf

Prop File Shelves, Property File Shelves

Room

Margaretta P. Childs Archives

Building

Missroon House

Category

Permanent

Relationships

Related Entries

Notes

2011.015.9a-b, 2017.015.14, EBATTERY.001.2, EBATTERY.001.3, EBATTERY.001.4, EBATTERY.001.5a-e

Related Publications

Notes

Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 217-218

General Notes

Note

Notes: Photo #1 from Art Work of Charleston.

Created By

admin@catalogit.app

Create Date

June 28, 2007

Updated By

admin@catalogit.app

Update Date

February 16, 2023