Col. William Rhett House, Colonial residence in Charleston, United States.
Col. William Rhett House is a two-story brick residence on Hasell Street in Charleston featuring a symmetrical facade with dual front staircases characteristic of colonial design. The structure displays typical features of early 18th-century residential architecture found throughout the region.
Col. William Rhett built the house in 1712 as the main house of Point Plantation, later called Rhettsbury, outside Charleston's walled city limits; the land was later absorbed into Ansonborough. After Rhett died in 1722 the house stayed in his family until 1807, when Christopher Fitzsimons bought it. Fitzsimons's grandson, Gov. Wade Hampton, was born here.
The house displays early 18th-century Charleston architecture with its dual front staircases and brick construction, typical of homes built for prosperous families of that era. This style shaped the appearance of residential neighborhoods at the time and remains a window into local craftsmanship from that period.
The house stands at 54 Hasell Street, in the Ansonborough section of downtown Charleston, and is still a private residence, so the two front staircases and the stuccoed brick facade are seen from the street. A historical marker placed by the Preservation Society of Charleston in 2001 stands at the property.
Wade Hampton, born in the house, was the grandson of Christopher Fitzsimons, who bought the property in 1807. Hampton later served as Governor of South Carolina and as a U.S. Senator. The house stayed in William Rhett's family until that 1807 sale.
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