Name/Title
16-18 Elliott Street (William Mills Tenements) and 20 Elliott Street (George Gibbs Tenement)Entry/Object ID
ELLIOTT.016-20.1Scope and Content
Constructed circa 1802; restored mid-20th century. These three tenements probably retain the shells of earlier 18th century structures dating from the heyday of Elliott Street as Charleston's most important commercial thoroughfare and burned in the fires of 1740 and 1778. For most of their history these 3-story, three-bay, stucco edifices housed commercial spaces on the ground floors and residences above. A tailor who immigrated to Charleston from Dundee, Scotland, and prospered in the city built the two attached structures at 16-18 Elliott by 1802, eventually bequeathing the easternmost tenement to his daughter, Mrs. George Lusher, who lived at 18 Legare Street, and the building at 18 Elliott, to his famous architect son, Robert Mills. Neither sibling lived in these buildings and they were sold in 1835 and 1807 respectively. The wealthy baker George Gibbs, who lived on State Street, built the tenement at 20 Elliott Street at about the same time as the adjacent structures. In the late 1930s the Chisolm family restored 16 Elliott Street, inspired by the example of Miss Susan Pringle Frost, then rejuvenating Bedon's Alley. By 1949 they completed the work on 18-20 Elliott Street and also adaptively reused the ruins of the old Evening Post printing plant across the street. By lowering the brick walls and putting on a colonial style cap, retaining the arched openings and the shutters on the windows, and completing extensive exterior and interior plantings, the Chisolms created a lot that became an innovative solution for neighborhood parking and many current residents retain spaces here today.
File contains FOH garden history of 18 Elliott Street (1994); FOH garden history of 20 Elliott Street (1994); narrative history of 20 Elliott Street (undated, unattributed); brief history of 8-22 Elliott Street (source not indicated); newspaper articles (including DYKYC); house histories from Information for Guides of Historic Charleston.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
ELLIOTT.016-20.Source or Donor
16-20 Elliott Street (Williams Mills Tenements and George Gibbs Tenement)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Elliott Street, 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 41Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
ELLIOTT.016-20.2a-b, ELLIOTT.016-20.3, ELLIOTT.016-20.4Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 117-118Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
May 7, 2008Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023