Magwood-Moreland House

Magwood-Moreland House. 39 South Battery. , Samuel Magwood, a prosperous Ashley River planter and native of Ireland, built this two-and-one-half story house for his daughter, Susan (1807-1904), before her marriage to Irish-born Andrew Moreland (1789-1863) in 1827. The Morelands are buried at Old Saint Andrew's Parish churchyard, west of the Ashley River., The Magwood-Moreland house is a typical Charleston single house built on a crib of crisscrossed palmetto logs in a bed of sand and pluff mud. The palmetto log foundation allows the house to sway during earthquakes and gale-force winds; thus it has survived the destructive earthquake of 1886 and major hurricanes., The Magwood-Moreland house is a significant antebellum dwelling located on a lot that once fronted the Ashley River. The house narrowly escaped demolition on two occasions. In 1855 Mayor William Porcher Miles announced a plan to create a large park beyond White Point Garden, at the time only about one-third of its current size. The city purchased the Magwood-Moreland house and filled the marshes that bordered the property to create a 15 acre park on the waterfront west of the house. The Civil War intervened and the house was slated for demolition as a defense measure. The order was never accepted and the house was sold back into private ownership. The marsh to the south and west of the house was filled to create buildable land for Murray Boulevard in 1912 and the Fort Sumter House in 1923., Notable features are the two fanlights over the piazza screen entrance and the main private entrance to the center stair hall. Elaborate Regency style wood carving adorns the two frontispiece elements surrounding the piazza entrance and entrance to the main house. The house originally had a one-story piazza, the upper piazza having been added later to catch the sea breezes from the Ashley River. The sizeable rooms are adorned with original Regency interiors and elaborate fireplace mantles and moldings.