Heyward-Washington House, Georgian mansion in Charleston, United States

The Heyward-Washington House is a three-story brick building with multiple chambers and formal rooms that reflect how wealthy colonial families organized their homes. Inside, you find reception areas, drawing spaces, and private chambers that together show the layout of a substantial urban residence.

Built in 1772 as the town home of Thomas Heyward, Jr., a South Carolina signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Georgian double house was rented by the City for George Washington's week-long stay in May 1791. Heyward sold it in 1794 to John F. Grimké, and the Charleston Museum acquired it in 1929, opening it as the city's first historic house museum the following year.

The house displays furniture crafted by local makers and offers a window into the colonial craftsmanship that defined Charleston's reputation. Walking through the rooms, you see how affluent families of that era furnished their homes and arranged their daily lives.

The house is at 87 Church Street, owned and operated by the Charleston Museum, and opened in 1930 as Charleston's first historic house museum. Visitors tour the furnished rooms, the carriage shed, the 1740s kitchen building and the formal gardens planted with late-18th-century Lowcountry species. Allow time for the whole property, kitchen and gardens included.

The property has a rare kitchen building from the 1740s that few visitors can see elsewhere in the city. Combined with gardens designed after historical models, this offers a rare look at the material world of an affluent family from that era.