Russell, Nathaniel, House
National Register Listing
Street Address:
51 Meeting St., Charleston, SC (Charleston County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817710039
Description and Narrative:
The Nathaniel Russell House is an excellent example of the Adam style of architecture. Russell’s house was built when local carpenters had a decade of experience with the light and airy manner made popular by Robert Adam. His house has been called an exercise in ellipses, for from its free-flying stair to the wrought iron balconies, to the principal windows and doors, we find the expression of movement, combining in a contrast of forms. It was the last great house of the city’s post-revolutionary period. Built in 1809, the house is in the form of a rectangle, conforming partially to the outline of a single house, but with a strongly projecting four-sided bay which rises the full three stories of the central block of the house. Its face is dressed with marble window lintels, relief brickcourses, lovely bright red cutting brick arches above the windows of the second story, and topped with a paneled balustrade running fully about the central block and the south bay. The house is constructed of brick and has a hipped roof. The interior detail has all the delicacy and intricate ambition of the American version of the Adam manner. Slender double-encased pilasters in door and window architraves, Chippendale fret, anthemions, the iris, urns and swags, combine and enhance each other in both plaster and wood to give the rooms a most extraordinary refinement. Listed in the National Register August 19, 1971; Designated a National Historic Landmark November 7, 1973.
Period of Significance:
1809;19th century
Level of Significance:
National
Area of Significance:
Education;Architecture
National Register Determination:
National Historic Landmark
Date of Certification:
August 19 1971
Date of Certification as a National Historic Landmark:
November 7 1973
