Brewton, Miles, House
National Register Listing
Street Address:
27 King St., Charleston, SC (Charleston County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817710002
Description and Narrative:
The Miles Brewton House (ca. 1765-1769) is one of the most distinguished town houses of the American colonial period, and the most outstanding of Charleston’s “double houses.” It is one of the few Palladian buildings undertaken in the South by direct influence of the Italian himself. The classical detailing is exquisitely correct, and raises the exterior form to a level of accomplishment very seldom reached by any American Palladian building. Particularly in the two-story portico with its superposed Doric and Ionic orders carved from Portland stone, its finely proportioned pediment with oval window, and its beautifully incised frieze and architrave, do we realize the splendor that this house offers. The interiors of the house are of the finest quality, and together with its Palladian authenticity, make it one of America’s most distinguished late-Georgian feats of architecture. Just north of the house stands a crenellated gate house, and then in order running east to west are an attached porticoed kitchen/slave quarters building, a connecting arcade, a two-story pavilion, another arcade, and finally a small square outbuilding that may have served any of a number of domestic functions. Directly behind the house, the formal garden of the eighteenth century retains its layout, and against the back wall, about 500 feet west of King St., stand four stone columns which are said to have been part of the original boat landing when the property extended through to Legare Street. Listed in the National Register October 15, 1966; Designated a National Historic Landmark October 9, 1960.
Period of Significance:
1765 – 1769;1769;18th century
Level of Significance:
National
Area of Significance:
Architecture
National Register Determination:
National Historic Landmark
Date of Certification:
October 15 1966
