Nathaniel Russell House

This Friday I will introduce you to another Historic house. The Nathaniel Russell House located in Charleston, SC. This house is beautiful and the architecture is amazing! This is a wonderful home and has a lovely garden. The inside of the home is great, has been restored to the original paint colors and furnished beautifully. The staircase is the most spectacular feature of the house but the oval rooms are also wonderful.

The Nathaniel Russell House is a historic house located in downtown Charleston, South Carolina near High BatteryIt belonged to Nathaniel Russell, a Rhode Island merchant, who spent $80,000 on this Adamesque building before 1809. He and his wife, Sarah Russell, lived in the house during the early 19th century. It was sold to the state in 1955 by the Pelzer family, and today is used by the Historic Charleston Foundation as offices and also for tours. It is currently a museum open for tours.

The house is widely recognized as one of America’s most important Neoclassical houses and features three important geometric designs: a front rectangular room, a center oval room, and a square room in the rear. Other rooms of the house include: the turquoise-color First-Floor Oval Dining Room; the Second-Floor Drawing Room, where the women of the house retired to after dinner; and the Withdrawing Room.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.

An interesting fact is that the house has an elliptical spiral staircase, which ascends three floors. In addition, iron balconies surround the house, however not being interconnected. The house also has a large adjoining garden. Standing in the front garden, a green lawn can be seen behind which stands an arbor bench.

History of the House –

Since 1808, visitors have admired the grand Federal townhouse of Charleston merchant Nathaniel Russell. Set amid spacious formal gardens, the Nathaniel Russell House is a National Historic Landmark and is widely recognized as one of America’s most important neoclassical dwellings.

The graceful interior with elaborate plasterwork ornamentation, geometrically shaped rooms and a magnificent free-flying staircase is among the most exuberant ever created in early America.

Located in Downtown Charleston near High Battery, the house is furnished with period antiques and works of art that evoke the gracious lifestyle of the city’s merchant elite.

Today the Nathaniel Russell House interprets the lives of the Russell family, as well as the African American slaves and artisans who were responsible for maintaining one of the South’s grandest antebellum townhouses.