37 Hasell Street

—1841 —

Eliza Jones (1775-1846) purchased this lot in the aftermath of the Ansonborough fire of 1838. She was the granddaughter of Robert Gibson, a graduate of Oxford University, and a Grand Master Mason, who, according to family legend, played a role in the construction of St. Michael's Church.
Mrs. Jones held significant property in her own right and was the widow of Thomas Jones, a Charleston merchant who owned and planted Paradise Island in the Wando River. Mrs. Jones received a loan from the State Bank of South Carolina to build a house on this site, pursuant to the Act for Rebuilding the City of Charleston, the state legislation that ensured the quick rebuilding of Ansonborough in the wake of the fire.
A rare, surviving building contract between Mrs. Jones and builders Robert Fletcher and T.V. Sessions, executed in June of 1841, specifies nearly all the materials and details of construction for the new dwelling. The three story Greek Revival brick house was specified with an unusual, two story rear addition affording a back room or "tea room and pantry". These features are usually associated with post-Civil War additions made to traditional Charleston dwellings.
The Property was conveyed to a trust and thence to Jones' daughter, Adeline who married Sidney S. Howell, a merchant and native of the Caribbean



island of St. Martin. Their descendants occupied the property for over a century thereafter, maintaining an enormous collection of family papers that were donated to the South Carolina Historical Society. The Howells were one of only two original Ansonborough families to build and continuously occupy their house until the beginning of the Historic Ansonborough Rehabilitation Project in 1959.placed byThe Preservation Society of Charleston2012

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