Name/Title
37 New Street (Hammer-Sams House)Entry/Object ID
NEW.037.1Scope and Content
Constructed ca. 1860-66. The Hammer-Sams House occupies a distinctive triangular lot at New and Broad Streets formerly called Savage's Green. Here in 1792 Charlestonians constructed a new theater, designed by James Hoban, the Irish-born architect who later designed the White House. although the theater was simple and barnlike on the exterior, a handsome Tuscan portico was added in the late 1820s shortly before it became a medical college, a short-lived rival to the present Medical University of South Carolina. The building was demolished before the construction of the present house, and with the filling of the adjacent parcels, a number of houses arose along New Street in the antebellum period. According to real property records, in 1863 William C. Hammer purchased the lot on which 37 New Street now stands. The house may have been under construction just before or during the Civil War, a time when building of new houses was at a minimum. Donald D. Sams bought the property with a completed dwelling in 1868, and his family occupied it for almost a century. Sams owned Dataw Plantation near Beaufort prior to the war, and Union troops destroyed his house there in 1862. The Hammer-Sams House, with its corbeled brick gable end, Gothic hooded chimneys, brick belt course between floors, and double-tiered side piazza with a Greek Revival entry screen, exhibits features common to antebellum Charleston single houses. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains FOHG house history (1995); photocopy of 1867 plat; 1832 plat "Measurement of the First of Charleston Theaters" (digitized, see Media tab); Rosen and Associates (engineers) Hurricane Hugo Damage Report (1990).Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
NEW.037.Source or Donor
37 New Street (Hammer-Sams House)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
New Street, Lower Peninsula, 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 80Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
2004.021.051, 2004.021.111, 2011.022.13Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 320-321Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
April 14, 2011Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023