The Augustus Taft House is a Greek Revival house at 57 Laurens St.,

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

in the historic

Ansonborough Ansonborough is a neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1726, Captain George Anson acquired a 64-acre tract from Thomas Gadsden. Anson's lands were divided into smaller parcels for development, and several streets were named either for his ...

neighborhood. The house was constructed by Augustus Taft about 1836 using black cypress. Its interior has three fireplaces done in black Italian marble and pine flooring. The house has large, three-part windows that permit access to the piazzas. The house's interior retains the original room configuration. The front door in on the north facade and opens onto a stair hall. There are twin parlors to the right (the west side of the house) and a dining room. Behind the house is a three-story kitchen house. The house was two-story piazzas on the west side. Augustus Taft, a member of the same New England family of President Taft, built the house in 1836, and it survived a fire in 1838 that devastated most of the Ansonborough neighborhood. Taft's daughter married Pierre Gaillard Stoney, and the house remained in the family more than one hundred years. In 1865, the house was used to house freed slaves by the

Freedmen's Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...

for six months. The house (both inside and out) is protected by a preservation easement given to the

Historic Charleston Foundation Historic Charleston Foundation (HCF) was founded in 1947 to preserve and protect the integrity of the architectural, historical, and cultural heritage of Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The Foundation undertakes advocacy, participatio ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, Augustus, House Houses in Charleston, South Carolina