Name/Title
12-16 Tradd Street (Lightwood-Sommers House and Adjacent Properties)Entry/Object ID
TRADD.012.1Scope and Content
Constructed 1748-50; rebuilt 1789-96. A wealthy merchant partner of Gabriel Manigault and co-owner of the ship Neptune built a substantial brick house on this lot after acquiring it from the Baker family of Archdale Hall Plantation in 1748. Lightwood devised the property to his illegitimate sons, Edward and John Lightwood, at his death in 1769. The younger Edward Lightwood owned McLeod Plantation on James Island. The prosperous contractor Humphrey Sommers purchased 12 Tradd Street in 1784 and directed his executors at his death in 1788 to build "substantial brick buildings" on the property. The building's form and its presence on this site on a 1788 map may indicate a renewal by Sommers's executors of a structure surviving the fire of 1778. Sommers bequeathed to his daughters the adjoining tenements: the three-story, English-bonded brick house at 14 Tradd Street, the stuccoed double tenement at 16-18 Tradd Street, and the unpainted stucco facade of 2 Bedon's Alley. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains historical/chain-of-title research (L. Louis Green, 1969); newspaper article (1975? DYKYC); FOHG house histories (1960s?); house history from Information for Guides of Historic Charleston (1984); BAR application and supporting architectural drawings (2004) (no indication of approval status); 1886 Earthquake Damage Assessment (pdf); Hurricane Hugo damage survey (pdf).Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
TRADD.012.Source or Donor
12 Tradd Street (Lightwood-Sommers House)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Tradd 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 100Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 139General Notes
Note
Notes: Photo in this record from Hurricane Hugo Damage Assessment.Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
May 16, 2012Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023