4 South Battery (Villa Margherita)

Archive

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Historic Charleston Foundation

4 South Battery (1893): Origformat: Print-Photographic
4 South Battery (1893)

Origformat: Print-Photographic

Name/Title

4 South Battery (Villa Margherita)

Entry/Object ID

SBATTERY.004.1

Scope and Content

Constructed ca. 1895. Frederick P. Dinkelberg, architect. Although originally constructed as a residence, the Villa Margherita served for more than 40 years as a leading hotel. Andrew Simonds, a bank president and financier, purchased the site with an existing 18th century house and decided to build a new house for his New Orleans-born wife, Daisy. He retained Frederick P. Dinkelberg, a New York and Chicago architect who later became famous as a principal designer of the Flatiron Building in New York City, to plan a lavish house to reflect his expanding fortune. Dinkelberg's building reflects the emerging Beaux Arts style while retaining some features of the Renaissance Revival style, in its grand Corinthian-columned portico, attenuated cornice, second story cast-iron balcony, and impressive door architrave with engaged Ionic columns, fanlighted transom, and elaborate bracketed keystone. The decorative balustrade and cupola that formerly ornamented the stepped flat roof have been removed, along with the balustrade that surrounded the black and white marble front terrace. The interior, however, still includes an atrium surrounding a marble pool and a second-floor ballroom. Following Simonds's untimely death in 1905, his widow leased the property to Miss Ina Liese Dawson, who added an annex and converted the house to a fashionable small hotel called Villa Margherita. The hotel served wealthy northerners on their winter excursions to South Carolina hunting plantations, as well as other seasonal guests. Henry Ford and Alexander Graham Bell stayed at this select hostelry during its heyday. After its use by the United Seaman's Service in World War II, the house eventually returned to use as a single-family residence. File contains newspaper articles (including 1930s?, 1970s, 1980s DYKYC); house history from Tour Guide Training Manual (2011); entry from 60 Famous Houses; invitation to "rising damp syndrome" tour and press release, Restorations Inc., ca. 1995; page from On the Eve of the Charleston Renaissance; photocopy of 1843 plat (#7042).

Collection

Historic Charleston Foundation Property Records

Acquisition

Accession

SBATTERY.004.

Source or Donor

4 South Battery (Villa Margherita)

Acquisition Method

Collected by Staff

Lexicon

LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

Hotels

Search Terms

South Battery, Eighteenth-Century Expansion, 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 95

Shelf

Prop File Shelves, Property File Shelves

Room

Margaretta P. Childs Archives

Building

Missroon House

Category

Permanent

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Dinkelberg, Frederick P.

Related Entries

Notes

2004.020.108, 2006.007.36, 2011.015.32, 2011.015.33, 2011.015.5a-c, 2014.006.3, 2017.024.42, 2020.005.37 Related Units of Description: HABS Documentation of the South Battery (SBATTERY.GEN.1A-B)

Related Publications

Notes

Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 266-267

General Notes

Note

Notes: Image #1 in this record from Art Work of Charleston, 2006.007.36. Image #2 from unidentified source. Sent via email to Archivist by Barbara Looney (e.e. Fava Architects) on 2/20/2013.

Created By

admin@catalogit.app

Create Date

March 20, 2012

Updated By

admin@catalogit.app

Update Date

February 17, 2023