Two Lost Causes Restored in Charleston, S.C.
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Oct. 20, 2009
The reports of its death were not exaggerated. Twelve years ago, a demolition crew illegally tore down the back of a 1783 house in the heart of Charleston, S.C., prompting the Historic Charleston Foundation to intercede and halt further destruction.
This fall, after a dramatic turnaround, crews are completing restoration of the brick structure and another long-abandoned 1835 building on the same block. The Historic Charleston Foundation placed protective easements on the properties at No. 97 and No. 93 Broad Street before the City of Charleston sold them to a local construction company three years ago.
"We were anxious to place easements on them because we wanted to be sure they were restored using the highest standards," Winslow Hastie, the foundation's director of preservation, said in an e-mail.
"These buildings really bothered a lot of people, and they bothered us," says Fillmore Wilson, field supervisor at Meadors Construction. "They're on one of the most prominent blocks in the historic district. Our first reaction was, 'Somebody needs to take these buildings and restore them because they're a travesty. … Maybe we should try to do it.'”
Using historic Sanborn maps created for fire-insurance companies (and a little detective work), Meadors' architects and designers began the daunting project two years ago. "93 Broad Street was the worst I have ever seen in all my years of working on historic structures," Wilson. "97 was very rough, but not as bad.”
This month workers removed the scaffolding from No. 97, revealing a restored exterior. Much of the interior had to be rebuilt, Wilson says, but the company restored many interior details—mantels, trim, and doors. The company won't profit from the buildings, which will be sold as commercial properties after they're completed this fall. But money wasn’t their motivation, says Terry Bell-Aby, Meadors' special projects manager. "We just felt that they were really important to the streetscape of Broad Street, and we didn't want to let them go."
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Comments
Submitted by Brian at: October 21, 2009
Wow! What a fantastic success!