Name/Title
350 Meeting Street (Joseph Manigault House)Entry/Object ID
MEETING.350.1Scope and Content
Constructed ca. 1803; restored late-1980s, early 1990s. Gabriel Manigault, architect. The Manigault House is a paradigm for the advance of the preservation movement in early-20th century Charleston. The wealthy planter Joseph Manigault inherited the southern portion of the property from his uncle Joseph Wragg and, after purchasing the northern lot from his sister, commissioned his brother Gabriel Manigault to design a house in the manner of a Neoclassical suburban villa. The building as completed stands 3 stories over a high basement. It boasts a curvilinear bay on the north side providing an entry door and Palladian window, another curvilinear bay on the east side, a semicircular, double-tiered piazza on the west, and a rectangular piazza on the south facing the garden. Constructed of distinctive locally made reddish brown brick and trimmed with various sandstones, the house is covered by a slate, hipped roof. On the interior a broad curved stair rises on the north side of a large entry hall to a second-floor drawing room and a withdrawing room. There are large bedchambers on both the second and third floors. Extensive Neoclassical composition work decorates the various mantels and doorways of the principal rooms, and a large plaster medallion ornaments the ceiling of the stairway. A garden temple with a bellcast roof fronts the south end of the property where a parterre adjoins the south facade of the house. To the east and northeast, a kitchen, stable, and other dependencies, all now gone, made up a work yard. Architecturally, Joseph Manigault's town residence, without its third story, resembled the Manigault plantation house at White Oak on the North Santee River. A carriage maker, George N. Reynolds, bought the property in 1852 from the Manigault heirs and, after reorienting the house to the south, sold the southeast portion of the lot. Later the kitchen building and the entire north yard were sold and replaced by a dry cleaning establishment. Eventually the house declined to a tenement, and by 1920 it was threatened with demolition. Susan Pringle Frost founded the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings to save the Manigault House, and the fledgling group purchased it on May 19, 1920. By 1922 the financially distressed Society sold the property to Mrs. Ernest Pringle, who attempted valiantly to secure its future, reluctantly selling the garden to Standard Oil Company for a filling station. During this tenure the gatehouse became a comfort station and purchasers of full tanks of gasoline could receive free tours of the house. When the property was auctioned for default on the mortgage, The Charleston Museum purchased it in 1933 with funds donated by Harriet Pollitzer, Princess Pignatelli, the Charleston-born socialite who wintered at Wando Plantation near Mount Pleasant. Through the negotiations of museum director Milby Burton and Mayor Burnet Maybank, Standard Oil deeded back the garden, but the restoration of the property was delayed for more than 15 years due to the lack of funding. The house was used as a USO facility in World War II, after which sufficient funds were raised for its restoration. The Garden Club of Charleston restored the garden according to a surviving 1820 watercolor by Charlotte Manigault, and the museum furnished the house with a splendid collection of Charleston-made Federal furnishings. By 1986 the museum had demolished the modern building. Following years of study by architectural historians, conservators, and archaeologists, a restoration program reconstructed a conjectural fence and stair to the surviving door entry on John Street, divided the former work yard with outlines of the lost outbuildings, and restored some of the original colors and paint finishes. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains narrative history (undated, unattributed); article "The Restoration of the Manigault House" by Beatrice St. J. Ravenel (1942); interior finishes analysis by George T. Fore (1991); newspaper articles; plat showing site layout and floor plan (photocopy); drawing of the front and work yards showing excavation units; article "Growing History" by Elizabeth Long (Joseph Manigault House garden) (source, date not indicated); paint research in ballroom (letter from HCF, 1985).Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
MEETING.350.Source or Donor
350 Meeting Street (Joseph Manigault House)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Meeting Street, National Register of Historic Places, Mazyckborough and Wraggborough, Historic buildings--South Carolina--Charleston, Joseph Manigault House (Charleston, S.C.)Archive 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 74Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Manigault, GabrielRelated Entries
Notes
2004.020.054, 2005.011.003, 2006.005.045-046, 2006.010.377, MEETING.350.2, MEETING.350.3Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 612-613General Notes
Note
Notes: Image in this record from Whit Smith photos (loan).Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
August 30, 2010Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023