The

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 ...

studio of sculptor Clark Mills (December 13, 1810 – January 12, 1883), was his first—he worked there from 1837 to 1848, when he moved to

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, DC. The Charleston studio was designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1965. Before it became Mills' studio, the building, located at 51 Broad Street, Charleston originally served as a

tenement house A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

, and now houses professional offices. In 1848, Mills moved his studio and residence from Charleston to

, D.C., when he won a major contract to cast the equestrian bronze statue of Andrew Jackson—now in

Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. Lafayette Square is a seven-acre (30,000 m2) public park located within President's Park, Washington, D.C., United States, directly north of the White House on H Street, bounded by Jackson Place on the west, Madison Place on the east and Pennsy ...

, which made his name and foundry famous. and With the success of the 1852 Andrew Jackson sculpture, Mills studio was awarded other major contracts, created in Clark Mills Studio and Foundry in Bladensburg Road,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, eight miles from the Capital in

Mills Charlston studio (1837 – 1848)

The former Mills Studio building is located Charleston's old city, on the south side of Broad Street just west of Church Street. It is a four-story masonry structure, built out of stuccoed brick. Its front facade is now commercial, with store fronts on the ground floor, projecting bay windows on the second and third floors. The interior is also reflective of its modern uses, having been converted into professional offices around the turn of the 20th century. The building was originally built as a tenement house, and had two tenants in the 1830s, one of whom, Erastus Bulkeley, maintained a yard nearby from which he sold marble. When the other tenant moved out in 1837, Clark Mills rented that space, and established his residence and studio there. It is believed that it is here that the self-taught Mills produced his first significant work, a marble bust of South Carolina politician John C. Calhoun. The Broad Street building was assigned the National Historic Landmark designation on December 21, 1965, by the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP). It was included in the National Register of Historic Places Inventory in 1976 under The Clark Mills Studio, and as Stoney and Stoney Law Office .

Mills Studio and Foundry in Washington, D.C. (1848)

In 1848, Mills Foundry was selected by the Jackson Monument Committee to create an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson. The memorial statue to

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

is in Lafayette Square, near the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

For this contract Mills moved to Washington from Charleston, bringing with him eleven slaves including the master craftsman,

Philip Reid Philip Reed also Philip Reid (''c.'' 1820 – February 6, 1892) was an African American master craftsman who worked at the foundries of self-taught sculptor Clark Mills (sculptor), Clark Mills, where historical monuments such as the 1853 ''Eque ...

, who had become Mills' apprentice. They erected a temporary foundry south of the White House for the casting. According to the Smithsonian's James M. Goode, Mills with the assistance of his apprentice, Reid and laborers, produced six castings of the equestrian statue. When the bronze casting was completed in 1852, it was considered to be the "first bronze statue ever cast in America", according to The ''Architect of the Capitol'' . They had made it through "trial and error" making its "accomplishment" quite extraordinary—none of the workers, including Mills had any formal training. It has been described as the first equestrian statue made in America, and possibly the first equestrian statue of a horse rearing on two legs in which no additional support was added.

Clark Mills Studio and Foundry in Bladensburg Road,
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

The 1863 bronze

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

was cast in Mills' large octagon-shaped studio and foundry on Bladensburg Road,

. This building is included in the White House Historical Association (WHHA).

References

External links

Clark Mills Studio, Charleston County (51 Broad St., Charleston)
at South Carolina Department of Archives and History
"Clark Mills Studio"
''HMdb'' *http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/SC0258/ {{National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina Office buildings in South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Charleston, South Carolina Historic district contributing properties in South Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina

Mills Charlston studio (1837 – 1848)

Mills Studio and Foundry in Washington, D.C. (1848)

See also

References

External links