Description

Constructed in 1838 for wealthy Charleston planter and South Carolina legislator Robert William Roper, No. 9 East Battery stands among the country's finest surviving examples of antebellum urban architecture as a designated National Historic Landmark. Its monumental scale, classical proportions, symmetrical composition, and sophisticated ornamentation collectively illustrate its Greek Revival design, a defining architectural style of mid-nineteenth-century America. The house occupies a double lot along Charleston's iconic High Battery and reflects the emphasis on architectural refinement among the city's elite during the 1830s and 1840s. The most distinctive feature is the dwelling's full-height portico, a notable synthesis of Greek Revival design elements with the city's vernacular piazza tradition to maximize shade, ventilation, and outdoor living in the Lowcountry climate. The residence served as the town home of Martha Rutledge Laurens Roper, granddaughter of Founding Father John Rutledge, the governor of South Carolina during the American Revolution and a signer of the United States Constitution, and Robert William Roper from its completion in 1838 until Robert William Roper's death in 1845. Owned by other prominent Charleston families over the following decades, the house was acquired in 1929 by New York industrialist and philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim, founder of the Guggenheim Museum, who established it as the family's winter residence. Perhaps most notably, it was purchased in 1968 by New York financier Richard H. Jenrette, who later credited the house with sparking his appreciation for historic preservation and his longstanding devotion to restoring some of America's great classical houses - a vision that ultimately led to the founding of the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, now the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation. A witness to defining moments in American history, including the opening shots of the Civil War across Charleston Harbor, the residence has been meticulously preserved and stewarded by preservation professionals and master craftspeople over the past several decades. Described by the Jenrette Foundation as "a remarkably intact document of the city's architectural, cultural, and social history," with significance rooted in the "authenticity of its historic fabric," the Roper House offers a rare privilege of stewarding one of Charleston's most significant historic residences. Entering from East Battery, one first passes through an etched-glass vestibule, representing the dwelling's later Victorian-era ownership by the Siegling family, before arriving in a grand side-hall foyer, a defining characteristic of Charleston's finest early nineteenth-century residences. A spiral staircase, framed by classical niches, rises to the full height of the home and organizes the interior around two principal rooms on each floor, reflecting the traditional Charleston single house typology. The dwelling's most significant interior spaces are the second-floor double drawing rooms, connected by original pocket doors and opening onto the piazza through full-height triple-hung windows, a configuration intentionally designed for entertaining while enhancing natural light, ventilation, and views of Charleston Harbor. Black marble mantelpieces, original heart pine floors, high ceilings, and substantial classical-inspired moldings and millwork further define the principal floor, which once served as the backdrop for an overnight visit by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, in 1990. Anterooms at either end of the principal drawing rooms historically served as music rooms, libraries, and private sitting rooms. Formal bedchambers above exhibit increasingly restrained ornamentation compared with the principal entertaining spaces below, while still conveying the classical dialogue of the building's overall design. A late-nineteenth-century rear addition sensitively expands the house's footprint to include modern amenities for twenty-first-century living, with southeastern views of the harbor and a distinctive side yard.

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