The Patrick O'Donnell House

The Patrick O'Donnell House, 21 King St.

   
     Patrick O'Donnell was an Irish immigrant in mid-nineteenth century Charleston, a builder with an eye for elegance and fine details --- and a man in love. He was engaged to a young woman in Charleston and swore to build a house as beautiful as she was herself. He spared no expense or detail as he went about this purpose - for it became apparent, he was also in love with the Pygmalion of a house he had created. He took so long in finishing his house (eight years!) that his lady fell in love with someone else and left him alone with his spectacular home! "Spectacular" is certainly not an overstatement for this beautiful home built in 1856 in the elaborate Italianate style that was quite popular in Charleston in the mid-1800's. Built as a Charleston single house, this 10,000 square foot, three and a half story home is resplendent in its attention to detail. Because of Patrick O'Donnell's unfortunate loss, this house was dubbed "O'Donnell's Folly" and the name still stands today.

     This house has been home to some well-known names in Charleston's history. Novelist and poet Josephine Pinckney lived in here from 1907 - 1937. This was during a time known as the Charleston Renaissance when a wealth of artists, writers and musicians flocked to Charleston and created a unique culture of creativity. The Poetry Society of South Carolina was organized in this house in 1920. The Patrick O'Donnell House was also where Susan Pringle Frost, the moving force in the early part of the twentieth century of what would become the Preservation Society of Charleston, was born in 1873. She had returned to this home at the time of her death in 1960.  At one time this was also the home of Mrs. Thomas R. McGahan, who was said to have been the person Margaret Mitchell used as a model when creating the gentle character of Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind.


     In 2008, then candidate Barack Obama visited Charleston during his presidential campaign. He spoke from the piazza of this house on King St. as he addressed his supporters. Later, in his inaugural speech, he referred to people he met during his campaign "from the porches of Charleston" to other locations across America.

     Patrick O'Donnell may have lived his life alone, but he left a beautiful legacy at 21 King St. to be admired and enjoyed by generations of people who have come here since and those yet to come.

Charleston's Liberty Tree, Christopher Gadsden and the Sons of Liberty

Site of the Liberty Tree, 80 Alexander St.

In 1766, the pot of liberty was being stirred by many of the colonists who sought to be free of the imposing hand of England. Many of these early "pot stirrings" took place underneath, or near, a Liberty Tree. Like the Boston Liberty Tree, similar meeting places rose in each of the thirteen colonies. In Charleston, Christopher Gadsden, a wealthy merchant, possessed the ability to stir the common man with his words. He met with like-minded revolutionaries, who became known as the Sons of Liberty, underneath a large oak tree in a Mr. Mazyck's cow pasture and there they shared a dream and rallied together.

      Ten years later, the people of Charleston first heard the words of the Declaration of Independence read under the branches of this Liberty Tree.

   When the British occupied Charleston in 1780, they chopped down the Liberty Tree lest it become a rallying point for the colonists. Then, in an act that could only have been motivated by vengeance, they burned the stump that was left.

      But that is not the end of the story of the Liberty Tree! After the Revolution, the root of the Liberty Tree was salvaged and was made into cane heads. One of these canes was given to Thomas Jefferson. 

      The root of liberty is strong......and once freedom has been tasted no weapon or fire or act of vengeance can quell that longing.

The Miles Brewton House and the Story of Rebecca Brewton Motte

Miles Brewton House, 27 King Street

        Miles Brewton built this beautiful Georgian Palladian home in 1769. It is one of the finest examples of this 18th century architectural style in America. Over the main doorway is the earliest example of a fanlight in Charleston. The details, both interior and exterior, make this house one of exceptional note.  Miles Brewton made his huge fortune as a merchant and a slave trader. He had a number of plantations and grew rice and indigo. He was active in the Pre-Revolutionary Charleston political scene and was  elected to the second Provincial Congress. He took his wife and children with him when he left Charleston in 1775 headed for Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the entire family was lost at sea. If MIles Brewton could have foreseen the future, he would have seen his magnificent home occupied by the officers of two enemy armies, during both the American Revolution and the Civil War. The "chevaux-de-frise" - iron bars with spikes topping the fence and gate - was installed in 1822 in reaction to an alleged slave insurrection plot led by Denmark Vesey. It gives this stately home an air of fear and danger and an undeniable reminder of a painful past......not the usual Charleston welcome we have come to expect.



        After Miles Brewton's death, his sister Rebecca Brewton Motte inherited this home, as well as a plantation on the Congaree River, known as St. Joseph (later renamed Fort Motte.)
Rebecca became a Revolutionary War heroine and her story is one of strength and ingenuity -- both, without a doubt, characteristics of a "Strong Southern Woman"!  Rebecca Brewton was born in 1737 and married Jacob Motte in 1758. The couple had seven children - and therein begins Rebecca Motte's journey with grief and loss. Of her seven children, only three daughters lived to adulthood. In 1775, her brother Miles and his family were lost at sea. She moved with her family into the home her brother had built on King Street. Rebecca Motte was a strong supporter of the Patriot cause and gave all she could to advance it. Imagine her horror when Charleston fell to the British in 1780 and, to add insult to injury, her home was commandeered as the headquarters for the British officers Sir Henry Clinton and Lords Rawdon and Cornwallis! She locked her three daughters in the attic of the house to keep them away from the presence of the British soldiers. Jacob Motte was, by this time, quite ill. Rebecca was given permission to take her family to her plantation home on the Congaree River in the Orangeburg district. Jacob Motte died shortly afterward in January, 1781.  When the Motte family reached the plantation -- longing, surely, for some respite from grief and war, the British had also occupied her plantation home! She and her family were exiled to a small overseer's house. The British now occupied what had become know as "Fort Motte". General Francis Marion ("Swamp Fox") and Colonel Henry Lee were sent, along with their troops, to capture Fort Motte. After five days, Francis Marion approached Rebecca with a difficult scenario. The only apparent way to rid her house of those pesky British was to burn it down! Rebecca did more than just agree! She remembered a quiver of arrows that had been given to her brother by a West Indian sea captain. The arrows were supposed to be combustible. Rebecca Brewton supplied the arrows to burn down her own home! 


             The plan succeeded and both British and American soldiers worked to put out the fire before the house was completely destroyed. Always the epitome of the "Strong Southern Woman", Rebecca Motte then prepared and served dinner to the American officers and their captive British officers!  










         

Charleston Ironwork - Philip Simmons

Philip Simmons Heart Gate at St. John's Church on Anson St.

           Any stroll through Charleston will bring you in close encounter with another of Charleston’s treasures -- decorative ironwork. From gates to rails to windows to balconies, Charleston’s love affair with the beauty of finely crafted wrought iron is evident. Charleston’s affinity for decorative wrought iron came about early in the history of the city. In 1772, a wrought iron communion rail was imported from England and installed in St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. Blacksmiths, who had made a career of providing nails, horseshoes, and wagon wheels to the growing city, now began to expand their craft to include patterns and scrollwork. The earliest designs were taken from British pattern books, but it didn’t take long for the ironwork of Charleston to develop its own style. Unfortunately, much of the earliest ironwork did not survive the multitude of of fires and natural disasters that plagued those early inhabitants. 

Sword Gate, 32 Legare St.

Of the nineteenth century ironworkers, Christopher Werner is one of the most well-known. He created the Sword Gates at 32 Legare St., as well as the elaborate ironwork at the John Rutledge house at 116 Broad St. which incorporates the motifs of the palmetto tree and the eagle as an homage to John Rutledge’s service to the state and to the nation. The Sword Gates were installed at the Legare St. house in 1849, nearly a decade after Christopher Werner had been commissioned to make gates with Roman swords signifying authority for the Guard House at Broad and Meeting streets. He made one more pair of the gates than was needed, thus allowing for the gates at 32 Legare to be added. The beautiful ironwork at Hibernian Hall (105 Meeting St.) is also thought to be by Christopher Werner.

Hibernian Hall, Meeting St.

           The name Philip Simmons is synonymous with twentieth century wrought ironwork in Charleston. There are few names as beloved in twentieth century Charleston as that of Philip Simmons. Born in 1912 on Daniel Island (long before tennis centers and condominiums!) he lived the rural island life until he was 8 years old. Then the year came that the school district did not send a teacher to the children of Daniel Island and Philip’s grandfather sent him to live with his mother in Charleston during the school year. In the summers and weekends he returned to his grandparents' home on the island until he was thirteen years old. On the way to and from school, Philip passed by the blacksmith’s shop of Peter Simmons (no relation) and in 1925 he began to work for him. From the mentoring of Peter Simmons emerged what would become “Charleston’s Blacksmith” -- Philip Simmons.

Philip Simmons died in 2009 at the age of 97, leaving the city, the nation, and the world the gift of hundreds of pieces of wrought iron artwork. His work is on display at numerous museums including The Charleston Museum, The South Carolina Museum in Columbia, and the Smithsonian. He has been honored by local, state and national leaders. Mr. Simmons was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1982. While in Washington, he was invited to lunch with President Reagan. All of these accolades must have seemed strange for a blacksmith who still used the tools he inherited from Peter Simmons which had been made 150 years before. His workshop on Blake Street had no electricity and he made with his hands anything he needed to use in his craft.  Explore a wealth of information at the website for the Philip Simmons Foundation. There you will find more about Mr. Simmons, as well as a listing - including pictures and locations - of his most prominent ironwork. It is well worth a visit, as is his workshop at 30 1/2 Blake St.

   
       Please take a few minutes to watch this excellent video about Philip Simmons which was produced  by SC ETV:


                                                                                      Philip Simmons

       
   
     

The Bells of St. Michael's

St. Michael's Episcopal Church, 80 Meeting St.

          The bells of St. Michael's Episcopal Church are among the greatest treasures in a city filled with treasures of the heart. St. Michael’s is the oldest church building in Charleston, having survived hurricanes, earthquake and fires – not to mention the devastation left behind by the bombardment and occupation of two wars.

            The bells of St. Michael’s have quite a remarkable “travel history” of their own. In 1764, a ring of eight bells was cast in England and exported to St. Michael’s.  When the British withdrew from Charleston after the Revolutionary War, they took with them all the silver they could find and anything else of value they could carry, as well as 5,000 slaves, 3,800 loyalists – and the bells of St. Michael’s. This was no small feat, as the bells ranged in weight from 509 lbs. to 1,945 lbs.!  Shortly afterward, a merchant in London secured the bells and returned them to a grateful Charleston. Years later, two of the bells cracked and had to be shipped back to London to be recast.

 As the events leading to the Civil War began heating up, Charleston became a focal point. When Sherman made his deadly march through the South, Charlestonians fully expected to be in his path……so the bells were sent to Columbia for safe-keeping, even during a time when most church bells were donated or confiscated to be recast as artillery.  Sherman set his sights on Columbia instead of Charleston and the shed in which the bells were stored burned- along with a great portion of the city. The metal was salvaged and the bells were, once again, sent to London to be recast. When they returned to St. Michael’s, a new frame had been incorrectly installed and the bells could no longer be rung in the traditional way, but had to be chimed instead (Instead of pulling a rope that would physically move the bells full circle, a device was built that would move the clapper against the bell without having to actually move the bells. The bells were rung in this manner from 1868 until 1993.)

After Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the bells once again crossed the Atlantic to have all the fittings replaced. During that time, a new wooden frame was constructed so that when the bells returned they could be rung in the traditional way. Quite a travelogue for a set of bells!

        

             But what of the people who rang those remarkable bells through the years? Do we know anything about them?  Church records indicate that Washington McLean Gadsden, born in slavery in 1824, rang the bells of St. Michael’s for 61 years! Since he retired in 1898, that means he would have begun his ringing career at the age of 13. Because of the fact that the bells were rung in the traditional manner up until the Civil War, one could imagine that, perhaps, the bells were rung by young slave boys. What they must have seen and talked about as they pulled those eight ropes in the bell tower of St. Michael’s! But unlike the others, Washington McLean Gadsden continued to be in charge of the bells. When the bells could not be rung, but instead had to be chimed, he played the clavier-like instrument that moved the clappers of the bells. Since he was ringing an eight bell diatonic scale, he was able to ring the melodies of hymns and spirituals that were recognized by the people. He was a musician in his own right! After the fierce hurricane of 1885, George Williams wrote of the comfort Washington McLean Gadsden gave to the ravaged city as he rang out the old hymns that were so dear to the hearts of those who had been through another terrible ordeal.

      

Today, the bells are rung in the ancient art form known as change ringing…and so the Bells of St. Michael’s have come full circle, bringing with them the history of the past into the promise of the future. May we all have learned a few lessons along the way!

Enjoy this video of the bell ringers of St. Michael's performing a change ring pattern.