The Villa Margherita is an Italian Renaissance house at 4 South Battery,

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 ...

. It was built in 1892 and early 1893 for Andrew Simonds. The house is of brick with a Portland cement coating according to the plans by the architect,

Frederick P. Dinkelberg Frederick Philip Dinkelberg (June 30, 1858 – February 10, 1935) was an American architect best known for being Daniel Burnham's associate for the design of the Flatiron Building in New York City. Other important projects he worked on include, C ...

. The decorative work on the four Corinthian columns and frieze on the front was executed by Morrison Brothers of New York City. The entrance of the house features a large atrium with a fountain. Between 1905 and 1953, the house served as a hotel. During that use, guests included

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

, and

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...

was a guest at the hotel, where he completed the manuscript for ''Main Street''. In 1935, author

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

and her partner Alice B. Toklas spent

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

at the Villa Margherita during Stein's American tour. From 1943 to 1946, the United Seaman's Service leased the hotel and rented rooms to seamen and their families. In 1961, James and Mary Wilson bought the house. Their daughter, Mary Wilson, sold it for $3 million to Stephen and Mary Hammond in September 2012.

References

Houses in Charleston, South Carolina Houses completed in 1893 {{coord, 32.770377, -79.929251, display=title