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26-524: William Aiken House may refer to: Gov. William Aiken House , a Charleston, South Carolina home of South Carolina governor William Aiken, Jr. William Aiken House and Associated Railroad Structures , includes the Charleston, South Carolina home of railway founder William Aiken, Sr., father of the governor Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

52-436: A leaf motif. The adjacent office was where Russell conducted business. Separating the public rooms at the front of the house from the more private rooms used by the family, wide faux-grained double doors with glazed rosette patterned insets and an elliptical, fan-shaped transom give access to the golden-walled stair hall that showcases the house's best-known architectural feature, the cantilevered spiral staircase , which rises to

78-416: A residence commensurate with his status. He began construction of his house in 1803, and completed it five years later (at the age of 70). Nathaniel and Sarah Russell had two daughters, Alicia Hopton Russell and Sarah Russell Dehon. Dehon inherited her father's house and lived there until her death in 1857, after which her children sold it to Robert Allston , a prominent rice planter who lived there while he

104-472: A team of archaeologists began to research and survey the slave dwellings on the Aiken-Rhett property. By 2018, the team was able to uncover over 10,000 artifacts. A large majority of the pieces are currently still on display within an exhibit interpreting their cultural significance. The artifacts span from coins and tools, to pieces of bottles and pottery. In a separate research and archeological survey in 2017,

130-417: A team of archeologists were able to search for evidence of siege lines that British soldiers reportedly dug in the spring of 1780. Historic Charleston Foundation launched an app in the fall of 2018, which offers further information on topics and a self-guided audio tour. The tour lasts for roughly 45 minutes and includes exhibit descriptions and photographs. The decision to update the tour reportedly came from

156-416: A variety of geometrical shapes (square, circular, ovoid, elliptical), embellished with elaborate plaster decoration and striking polychrome. The Nathaniel Russell House has three main rooms per floor, each of different geometric designs: a rectangular room in front; a central oval room, and a square room in the rear. The rectangular entrance hall has a black-and-white diamond-patterned floorcloth edged with

182-615: Is 9,600 square feet (890 m ) with 6,000 square feet (560 m ) of living area. The house's interior exemplifies the neoclassical style (often called Federal style in the United States; late-Georgian or Adam style in Great Britain; and Louis Seize in France), popular during the last two decades of the 18th century and the first two of the 19th. In their interior design, neoclassical architects and craftsmen often created rooms in

208-417: Is connected by a continuous stone string course, creating a kind of architectural necklace running around the house's east and south sides. The entrance facade's principal feature is its single-leaf, faux-grained, eight-paneled door, capped by an elliptical fanlite and flanked by four fluted pilasters. On the floor above, an elegant iron balcony with bowed, elliptical projections bearing the monogram "NR" spans

234-419: Is recognized as one of the United States' most important neoclassical houses. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973. In 1765, Nathaniel Russell relocated from Rhode Island to Charleston, where he prospered as a slave merchant. In 1788, at the age of 50, he married Sarah Hopton, the daughter of an affluent Charleston family. As one of Charleston's more prominent citizens, Russell required

260-635: The Magnolia Cemetery . In addition to the stories of enslaved people and the African American community, women's history and LGBTQ community have been included as well inside the app. Nathaniel Russell House The Nathaniel Russell House is an architecturally distinguished, early 19th-century house at 51 Meeting Street in Charleston , South Carolina , United States . Built in 1808 by wealthy merchant and slave trader Nathaniel Russell, it

286-902: The 1995 purchase of the Aiken property, a more traditional approach has been taken to preserve the property. According Historic Charleston Foundation, what attracted them to purchasing the property was its "unique opportunity to understand and present antebellum urban life and the African American heritage of Charleston to the public." An attractive feature of the Aiken House is its urban development. Most scholars of southern history and culture define antebellum plantation mansions being surrounded by agricultural developments, such as other Charleston area plantations, Drayton Hall , McLeod Plantation , and Magnolia Plantation. However most southern antebellum cities were entrenched in slavery - Richmond, Savannah, and Charleston - which populations made up usually one third of

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312-421: The base are painted to resemble lapis lazuli . The fireplace mantles' Adam-style ornamentation are among the city's most detailed. The curved entry doors are faux-grained to resemble flame-grained mahogany on the exterior and tortoise shell on the interior. Curved, mullioned mirrors on one side of the room balance the windows on the other and reflect light into the room. The large rectangular withdrawing room at

338-463: The director of museums at Historic Charleston Foundation, Lauren Northup. The older guide for the Aiken-Rhett was constructed in the mid-1990s, and "left out many of the stories they had discovered since then about the lives of the enslaved on the property." The foundation later updated the app to cover more of the Charleston area historic house museums, such as the Nathaniel Russel House and

364-429: The facade's full three-bay width. The south side's principal feature is the polygonal bay rising the full height of the house. A second balcony, as light and elegant as the first but lacking the monograms, wraps around the bay, emphasizing the preeminence of the second story. An elaborate tripartite window dominates the north facade, placed to sit indoors between landings of the house's elliptical staircase. The house

390-419: The front of the house has soft gray walls and white wainscoting topped by a multilayered gilded cornice. The windows are surrounded by tall slender pilasters and overhanging entablatures that give the walls character. With windows on three sides, the room was used primarily during the day to take advantage of the daylight and breezes. At the rear of the house is a square master bedroom; additional bedrooms are on

416-429: The house and grounds, and soon thereafter opened the house to the public. In 1995, the foundation began a multi-year program of research and reconstruction to restore the house's architectural details and interior finishes to their 1808 appearance. Grants and donations have enabled the foundation to acquire a significant collection of objects with a Charleston provenance, allowing it to show visitors an interpretation of

442-483: The lifestyle of Charleston's early 19th-century merchant class. The Nathaniel Russell House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In December 2023, after a year-long self-study, the board of Historic Charleston Foundation decided to sell the house and use the proceeds to support its other interests. Following an intense backlash from

468-522: The preservation community, donors, and others, the board of directors of Historic Charleston Foundation reversed course and voted to retain the museum house in January 2024. Russell commissioned an unknown architect to build a large townhouse in the then fashionable Federal style . Sited on a large lot in downtown Charleston, the house is rectangular in plan, three stories tall, and faced in gray Carolina brick. A bracketed cornice and paneled balustrade separate

494-541: The third floor. Though most of the art and furniture displayed in the house is not original to the Nathaniel Russell House, it is from the period when the Russell family inhabited the house, and much is of Charleston origin. The house and grounds are separated from the street by a wrought iron fence set atop a low brick wall, with an iron entrance gate flanked by tall brick piers capped with limestone ball finials. To

520-475: The third floor. The asymmetrical hall is illuminated by a Palladian window and ornamented by trompe-l'œil painting resembling a plaster cornice and an elliptical medallion painted by Charleston artisan Samuel O'Hara. Off the central stair hall is the oval dining room, with turquoise walls that appear painted but are small squares of unpatterned wallpaper bordered with red and gold interlocking rings above cypress wainscoting painted white. The heart-pine floors and

546-514: The title William Aiken House . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Aiken_House&oldid=243819123 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Gov. William Aiken House Frances Dill Rhett, whose husband

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572-554: The total city population. According to the 1850 census, Aiken enslaved 7 individuals inside the urban residence, although the Aikens enslaved 878 people in the Charleston and Colleton districts combined. Ten years in 1860, the number of enslaved people at the urban residence jumped to 19 individuals. By the time that the American Civil War broke out, at least 13 enslaved people were at the Aiken property, including 6 children. In 2016,

598-449: The walls from the low hip roof, concealing it from view to better express the pure geometrical shapes of the house. The more important facades—the entrance facade, facing east, and the garden facade, facing south—are treated formally and arranged symmetrically. The windows of the second, most important story, the "bel etage", are the tallest; all 11 are capped with marble voussoirs and set into niches with red brick arches. The whole ensemble

624-440: The wood interior shutters are original. At the rear of the house is a square parlor that was enlarged at a later date to connect the house to the kitchen, and was used by the family for everyday dining. The second-floor oval drawing room, to which the women of the house retired after dinner, is the house's most decorated room. Papered in apricot, its elaborate plaster moldings are embellished with 24-karat gold leaf. Plinth blocks at

650-601: Was a direct descendant of Gov. William Rhett, donated the house to the Charleston Museum in 1975. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Since 1995, Historic Charleston Foundation has owned and operated the Aiken-Rhett House as a historic house museum . The Aiken family owned the house for over 142 years until, in 1975, it was donated to the Charleston Museum . Twenty years later, Historic Charleston Foundation bought it. Since

676-575: Was governor of South Carolina. In 1870, Allston's executors sold it to the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, who used it as a boarding school until 1905, when the Mullally and Pelzer families converted it back to private use. In 1953, the owners offered the house for sale and in 1955, having failed to find a buyer, proposed subdividing the property. Historic Charleston Foundation , formed in 1947, resolved to preserve it intact, raised $ 65,000 (~$ 696,543 in 2023), bought

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