Meeting Street Memories: 16 Meeting Street, Part II
By Peg Eastman
As previously discussed in the August column, Lower Meeting Street has lost many elegant houses; according to a 2006 article by columnist Edward M. Gilbreth, the late Jane Thornhill (one of Charleston’s most prestigious early guides) rekindled interest in the Fenwick/Pinckney mansion by sending him a 1972 column written by W. H. J. Thomas. So, this article is likely the third attempt to perpetuate its memory.
After “Constitution Charlie” Pinckney sold the property, the mansion was purchased by James L. Lowndes on March 3, 1817, the son of Rawlins Lowndes and Mary Cartwright. Although he was admitted to the bar in 1790, he considered himself a planter and owned properties on the Ashepoo River, Horse Shoe Savannah, the Combahee River and Salkehatchie River in addition to three houses and lots in Charleston. He was elected to represent St. Philip’s and St. Michael’s parishes for several terms in the General Assembly and was also a Federalist Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1806.
He was active in civic affairs and served as a warden for Charleston’s Ward 12, a trustee for the College of Charleston, commissioner of the poor, commissioner to establish a mutual insurance company in Charleston and a member of the South Carolina Society, a member of the Charleston Library Society and a Vestryman for St. Bartholomew’s Parish. James Lowndes died in 1839 and in 1850 as executors to his estate, his sons sold the Meeting Street residence and lot to Samuel G. Barker for $18,000. It is suggested that the unusually low price indicated that the house had sustained damage from a storm or fire. Barker never lived there and at some point, the house was torn down. Barker died shortly thereafter and in 1863, the vacant lot was purchased by George Walton Williams, a prominent wholesale merchant and banker.
Williams was a native of Augusta, Georgia and was elected a director in the State Bank of Georgia in Augusta at the age of 23. In 1852, he established the wholesale grocery house of Geo. W. Williams & Company in Charleston, which imported sugar and molasses from the West Indies and bagging from India. By 1860, he had stores, warehouses and industrial complexes throughout the city.
When the Civil War broke out, Williams was an alderman of the city of Charleston and chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, a position he held for the duration of the war. The S.C. legislature appointed him to procure food for the soldiers’ families and the poor of Charleston, a position he personally supervised without charging for his services or rent from the tenants who occupied his buildings.
On February 17, 1865, Confederate troops began evacuating the city. According to historian Lee Harby, “some of the retreating troops animated by a reckless patriotism planned to burn the city to the ground.” Mayor Macbeth sent Williams to the wharves to petition Union officers for assistance to put a stop to the destruction.
During the war, Williams invested in blockade running and managed to emerge from the war with his fortune intact. He did not intend to return to the mercantile business but was urged by friends and customers to return to his old profession; his was the first house to resume business in Charleston after the war. He also opened a banking house on Church Street and acquired the Carolina Savings Bank at 1 Broad St.
According to contemporary newspaper articles, Williams had plans for a large house with a ballroom and an observatory atop the main house, a hot house and extensive gardens when he bought the “Lowndes Lot” on Meeting St. The cornerstone was laid April 26, 1875, and the house was completed the following year according to plans drawn by architect W.P. Russell with the Devereux Brothers as contractors. Russell subsequently went to Boston and became a member of a prestigious architectural firm. John Henry Devereux, a principal in Devereux Brothers, was also an architect who designed many of Charleston’s postbellum buildings.
After the mansion was completed, an article in the News and Courier called it “the handsomest and most complete private residence in the South.” Italian Renaissance Revival in style, it featured a double portico and the obligatory Charleston piazzas. The interior was embellished with walnut and oak woodwork, Minton encaustic tiles and gas chandeliers. There was a baronial staircase and a large music room with a skylight.
Williams died in 1903 and left his house to his son-in-law, Patrick Calhoun, a grandson of John C. Calhoun, after which the house became known as the Calhoun Mansion. Since then, attorney Gedney Howe and his wife, Patricia, bought the house in 1976 and undertook a restoration. Some years later it was sold to Howard H. Stahl. In 2020, the house officially returned to its original name owing to the current owner’s desire to snuff any implications that John C. Calhoun had once lived in the home.
The house and grounds appeared in ABC’s mini-series North and South and in the movie Gunfight at Branson Creek.
My appreciation to Robert Stockton, Lish Thompson and Jane Thornhill Schachte for contributing to this article.
A Charlestonian by birth, Margaret (Peg) Middleton Rivers Eastman is actively involved in the preservation of Charleston’s rich cultural heritage. In addition to being a regular columnist for the Charleston Mercury she has published through McGraw Hill, The History Press, Evening Post Books, as well as in Carologue, a publication of the South Carolina Historical Society.
