Isaac Jenkins Mikell House Explained

Issac Jenkins Mikell House
Nrhp Type:nrhp
Coordinates:32.7809°N -79.9421°W
Area:less than one acre
Built:1853–1854
Architecture:Roman Revival
Added:March 11, 2014
Refnum:14000056

The Isaac Jenkins Mikell House is an imposing Roman Revival residence in the style of a grand Italian villa that was built in 1853–1854 by Edisto Island cotton planter and enslaver.[1] Isaac Jenkins Mikell for his wife, Mary Martha Pope.[2] The house should not be confused with Peter's Point Plantation, an Edisto Island plantation built in about 1840 by Isaac Jenkins Mikell which is also sometimes referred to as the Isaac Jenkins Mikell House.

The southern facade (overlooking Montagu Street) is dominated by a pedimented portico with six columns with composite capitals carved from cypress and ornamented with rams' heads. In addition to the main house, there is a kitchen building and a separate coach house on the premises.[2] A 1939 photograph shows the slave quarters.

The house was bought in 1935 by the Charleston Free Library and served as a public library until the early 1960s, when it was sold and restored as a private residence.[2] In 2008, the house sold for $4.8 million to Manhattan socialite Patricia Altschul.[3] The house is frequently featured on the Bravo television reality show, Southern Charm; Altschul is the mother of one of the program's regular cast, filmmaker Whitney Sudler-Smith, who is also executive producer of the show.[4] The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.[5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. 1850 U.S. Federal Census-Slave Schedule
  2. Web site: 94 Rutledge Avenue . Preservation Society of Charleston . July 13, 2014 . July 14, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140714111001/http://www.preservationsociety.org/program_award_detail.asp?caID=81 . dead .
  3. Web site: Downtown estate sells for $4.8M . Post & Courier . March 28, 2008 . July 13, 2014 . Stech, Katy.
  4. Web site: Will 'Southern Charm' charm or go south? . Charleston Post & Courier . March 1, 2014 . July 13, 2014 . Parker, Adam.
  5. Web site: Mikell, Isaac Jenkins, House. National Park Service. July 14, 2014.