"Calhoun Mansion"

The history of the Calhoun Mansion is closely tied with that of post-Civil War downtown Charleston.

In hopes of helping the city recover from the devastating effects of the Civil War, George Walton Williams commissioned architect William P. Russel, as well as hundreds of local craftsmen and artisans, to build a grand, baronial Italianate manor house over the course of five years. Renowned for its beauty and decadence even at the time it was built in 1876, the Calhoun Mansion in Charleston South Carolina cost a total of $200,000, with the lot adding an additional $40,000 in Confederate currency.

The Calhoun Mansion still maintains a reputation as being one of the greatest post-Civil War mansions along the entire Eastern Seaboard. The home’s twenty-four thousand square feet hold thirty-five rooms, twenty-three fireplaces, fourteen-foot ceilings, a seventy-five foot domed ceiling above the stairwell, a music room with a forty-five foot glass skylight, and a sixty-five foot long grand entrance hall.

As amazing as the mansion was regarded, after Williams’ death in 1903, the historic home changed hands to the point where by 1972, it had deteriorated to the point of being condemned. At this point, a Charleston native spent $5,000,000 and twenty-five years working to restore the home, which now remains a private residence that is open to the public for daily viewing.