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A Glimpse of Eighteenth Century Charleston
| The Pink House, Charleston, South Carolina |
The Pink House is a historic house at 17 Chalmers Street in Charleston. When the photograph below was taken, the house was in use as an art gallery.
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Pink House,
Charleston, South Carolina 
photograph by Brian Stansberry, 17 May 2010, from Wikimedia Commons. |
A Charleston guidebook described the house as a brick and Bermuda stone stucco building built by John Breton; ‘it was a tavern in Colonial times’ (1). This suggests that, in the pre-revolutionary era, resourceful tenants generated income by running a drinking establishment from the house. It is remarkable that the Pink House has survived through wars, fires, hurricanes, and earthquake to be recognized as a building of historic interest.
The claim that the Pink House was built by John Breton, who purchased the land in 1712, gives the possibility that the house was built after the great hurricane of September 1713 (2). The stone construction may have been designed to survive a future hurricane.
The town lot that had belonged to John Breton, including the Pink House, came into the ownership of Thomas Corker. Thomas Corker passed away in January 1771, and, in May 1772, the property was sold at auction (see the section: A Glimpse of Eighteenth Century Charleston).
The book Mysterious South Carolina gave details of the Pink House: (3)
It was built with three levels, with one room on each level. It had large fireplaces for heating and cooking. The first floor is thirteen feet by thirteen feet, and the third-floor walls slightly slant in. When Breton built the house, he used Bermuda stone, also known as West Indian Coral stone. This is what gives it its pink color. It is constructed with eighteen-inch-thick stones with a ten-foot pathway. It was built with a tile gambrel roof.
When the house was offered for sale in 2016, the real estate listing stated:
Known as the Charleston Pink House, this historic home is America's second oldest masonry residence and Charleston's oldest residence. This perfectly placed pied-a-terre sits on one of the City's original cobblestone streets and is constructed of 18 inch thick pink Bermuda stone. The property was recently renovated yet retains its original details and features a beautiful Loutrel Briggs walled garden. This home stands alone with its unparalleled charm and historic significance. The Pink House has been a residence, tavern, law office and art gallery throughout the centuries.
General References Online
The Pink House, Archive Record
Historic Charleston Foundation.A history of the Pink House, compiled from research at the archives of the South Carolina Historical Society, the Charleston County Library, and the Charleston County RMC Office, provided by the Pink House Gallery
The Pink House
Notes
(1) Mary Preston Foster, Charleston: A Historic Walking Tour, Arcadia Publishing, 2005 (preview at Google books online).
(2)
For a record of John Breton’s purchase of the lot see the section:
A Glimpse of Eighteenth Century Charleston.
There is a record that, in the 1713 hurricane, the house of the
Reverend William Livingston, at White Point in Charleston
‘was washed & carried away by the overflowing of the sea’
(Mabel L. Webber, ‘Register of the Independent or Congregational
(Circular) Church 1732–1738’, in
The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine,
Vol. 12, 1911, ).
(3) Sherman Carmichael, ‘The Pink House, Charleston’ in Mysterious South Carolina, 2019, p. 21 (preview at Google books online).
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