Name/Title
102 Tradd Street (Grimke-Fraser House)Entry/Object ID
TRADD.102.1Scope and Content
Constructed mid-18th century; renovated with additions mid-19th century. This site was acquired in 1743 by the merchant and planter Frederick Grimké. Following his death in 1778, the property descended to his daughter Mary Grimké Fraser. The house and land remained in possession of Fraser women until the mid 1800s when it passed out of the family. Today the Grimké-Fraser House reflects two major periods of architectural activity. Built as a 2-story, hipped-roof structure in the mid-1700s, the house originally stood at right angles to its present position and occupied the corner of the lot at Tradd and Orange Streets. The actual plan of the house in this early period appears to have been close to its present arrangement. A piazza (most likely a single-story height) wrapped around the east and north sides of the building. Access into the house from the piazza led directly into the principal first-floor living spaces (a front parlor and back dining room). Associated with the house were a brick kitchen building and a large rear yard surrounded by a wooden fence. Dr. Hopson Pinckney, an assistant teller at the State Bank on Broad Street, purchased the house in 1847 from the Fraser descendants. Pinckney purchased a property that required significant work, as indicated in an 1846 description: "the old yellow house," wrote Charles Fraser, "is very old, as you know and ruinous." Pinckney began his renovations by moving the house back from Tradd Street, turning it ninety degrees, inserting new underpinnings, making extensive sill repairs, adding new front and rear piazzas, and inserting Greek Revival detailing, including pocket doors between the principal rooms and double doors onto the piazzas. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains house history from The Vernacular Architecture of Charleston and the Lowcountry; first floor way.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
TRADD.102.Source or Donor
102 Tradd Street (Grimke-Fraser House)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Tradd Street, Eighteenth-Century Expansion, Street corner, Orange 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 103Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
TRADD.102.2, TRADD.102.3a-c
Related Units of Description: Preservation Consultants files (Part I and/or Part II applications and/or photos and/or miscellaneous documentation), 2011.022.1Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 283-284Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
June 14, 2012Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023