Closing Notes
A harbor view and a storied past: the Stevens-Lathers House
By Patra Ann Taylor
Charleston has good addresses, and then there is The Battery. For nearly two centuries, the stretch of seawall and grand houses at the southern tip of the peninsula have been the city’s front porch — the place where Charlestonians go to watch the harbor, catch the breeze and take the measure of the day. Few houses on that front porch have a richer story than the Stevens-Lathers House at 20 South Battery St.
Life at the water's edge
Living on The Battery means living where the city meets the sea. From the upper floors of 20 South Battery, the view takes in the Ashley River, Fort Sumter at the mouth of the harbor and a sweep of rooftops and steeples across the peninsula. The light changes by the hour, the sailboats come and go, and the evening breeze off the water arrives here first.
Directly across the street lies White Point Garden, the shaded park of live oaks, monuments and old cannon that anchors the neighborhood. For Battery residents, it serves as an extension of the front yard — a place for a morning walk, an afternoon on a bench, or a stroll along the promenade atop the seawall, one of the most photographed walks in the South.
Just as appealing is what lies behind the house. The Battery sits at the foot of the South of Broad neighborhood, with its quiet, walkable streets of historic homes, hidden gardens and gated alleys. Churches, restaurants, galleries and the shops of Broad and King streets are all within an easy walk, so a Battery address offers both waterfront calm and the full life of the historic city at the doorstep. It is a combination few American cities can offer, and one that has drawn Charleston’s leading families to these few blocks since the 19th century.
A house with a history
Samuel Norman Stevens built the house around 1843, during one of the most prosperous periods in Charleston’s history. His Greek Revival double house was considered one of the peninsula’s finest mansions, a three-story Neoclassical showpiece facing the harbor.
In 1870, Col. Richard Lathers bought the house; he had built his career in New York before the war. Lathers hired architect John Henry Devereux to remake the house in the fashionable Second Empire style, adding a fourth floor with a library and a grand ballroom measuring 25 by 40 feet. Lathers hoped to foster reconciliation after the Civil War and hosted gatherings of prominent Southerners and Northerners before selling it in 1874.
The house holds another distinction. On April 21, 1920, a group of citizens led by Susan Pringle Frost met here and formed the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings — the first locally based historic preservation group in the United States and the forerunner of today’s Preservation Society of Charleston. A state historical marker now identifies 20 South Battery as the birthplace of preservation, fitting for a house that has so carefully kept its own past.
Inside the Stevens-Lathers House
Recently renovated and restored, the house has been updated with care for its original architecture. Much of the first- and second-period detail survives: ornate plaster cornices, Greek Revival columns and door surrounds decorated with anthemion leaves. The centerpiece is a sweeping oval staircase that still rises from its original Empire newel post, and the 25-by-40-foot ballroom remains ready for the kind of entertaining the house has hosted for generations.
The numbers match the setting. The mansion offers 15 bedrooms, 19 baths and 15,699 square feet on a deep lot of 0.38 acres. A classic Charleston garden stretches behind the main house and looks toward the original kitchen house, one of the dependencies that give the city’s great houses their distinctive layout.
The property’s flexibility may be its most unusual asset. Along with its residential use, 20 South Battery operates as an 11-room, fully licensed and grandfathered inn. Designated a Category 1 property by the city of Charleston, the house can serve as a grand private residence or continue its mixed use with a boutique inn. Its grandfathered status is an asset not easily replicated in the historic district.
A new chapter
The Stevens-Lathers House is currently on the market through Handsome Properties for $16.5 million, offering a rare chance to call the Battery home. For the right owner, it’s far more than square footage; it’s a place in Charleston’s story, a front-row seat to its harbor and a morning walk beneath the oaks of White Point Garden. As the listing puts it, the house awaits a new steward.
