The James Simmons House is a late 18th-century house at 37 Meeting Street,

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 ...

which was, at one time, the most expensive house sold in Charleston. It was likely built for James Simmons, a lawyer. By 1782, it was home to Robert Gibbes, a planter. Louisa Cheves (later McCord), a prominent antebellum writer, was born at the house on December 3, 1810. In 1840, Otis Mills, the owner of the Mills House Hotel, bought the house for $9,000. In October 1862, during the Civil War, the house was loaned to Gen.

Pierre Beauregard Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard (May 28, 1818 - February 20, 1893) was a Confederate general officer of Louisiana Creole descent who started the American Civil War by leading the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Today, he is commonly ...

, who used the house as his headquarters until August 1863. In 1876, Michael P. O'Connor, later a member of Congress, bought the house. The house is a traditional Charleston double house (i.e., four rooms per a floor at the corners with a central hall and staircase) but, unlike most, has matching two-story bay windows on the front façade, perhaps an early 19th-century alteration to an originally flat-faced building. It was the most expensive house sold in Charleston when it sold for $7.37 million in May 2009, overtaking the previous record holder, the Patrick O'Donnell House. It remained the most expensive house sold in Charleston until August 2015, when the

Col. John Ashe House The John Ashe House is an 18th-century house at 32 South Battery, Charleston, South Carolina. The house's date of construction is unknown, but it was built sometime around 1782 and renovated in the 1930s. In August 2015, it replaced the James Sim ...

at 32 South Battery sold for about $7.72 million. The house was bought by William and Nancy Longfellow from the founder of Blackbaud and majority owner of the Charleston Battery soccer team Anthony and Linda Bakker.

References

Houses in Charleston, South Carolina {{S-end