Meeting Street Memories: 11 Meeting St.
- cdavis884
- Jul 18
- 5 min read
By Peg Eastman
It is curious that the mansion at 11 Meeting St. did not merit mention in several well-known books about the buildings of Charleston. It was built for William Crocker Courtney, a wholesale hardware merchant after he purchased the site from E. Wilmot Walter for $15,000 — a substantial sum in 1854. According to the deed, the property consisted of two lots home to two brick buildings that predate the main house. The l856 city directory shows Courtney residing at 7 Meeting, which its number at that time. A large tax assessment increase indicates that Courtney had built his mansion by then. Courtney’s grand home was built during the peak of mansion building on Meeting Street and other prestigious locations all over pre-war Charleston.
The Venetian Revival-style mansion is three stories of stuccoed brick patterned after the traditional Venetian casa or palazzo, with a grouping of windows in the center of the façade. A notable departure from this style is that the window grouping is part of a projecting center pavilion compared to the prototype found in houses on the Grand Canal, where they are part of a “flat” façade.
Courtney’s projecting center pavilion is embellished with curving ends. An arched center entrance on the ground floor is flanked by small arched windows, all with vermiculated keystones, and on the second and third levels, triple windows are in arched openings with plain surrounds. Large trabeated windows flank the pavilion on each level. On the south side, small chambers mask the wide piazzas, and on the second level there are cast iron balconied. The flanking portions of the ground level are rusticated, and the façade is further articulated by wide bands framing the major portions, and belt courses between the levels. The complex façade is topped by a boldly projecting cornice that probably originally had Italianate brackets giving the illusion of support.
Due to remodeling, it is difficult to guess the original design of the interior, but as was common in the great houses of the period, the ceilings had plaster cornices and plaster ceiling medallions in the Venetian style. Not satisfied with his sumptuous dwelling, Courtney purchased another adjacent lot to the south from Eliza Haupt in 1860.
Courtney was a partner with Gilbert T. Tennant in Courtney Tennant & Company, a wholesale hardware merchant firm at 35 Hayne St. He served on the vestry at St. Michael’s Church and was instrumental in organizing Holy Communion Church in 1849, where he was a vestryman. For many years, he was a deputy of the Episcopal Diocesan Convention, first representing St. Michael’s and later Holy Communion. He was also a member of the prestigious South Carolina Society. On a personal note, his father was born in England and his mother in Nova Scotia. He was married to Marie Louise Courtney (1825-1904) and served in the Washington Volunteers (Findley’s Company of S. C. Volunteers) in the Seminole War in 1836.
In 1879, Courtney sold his home to Susan Hall. He died on Christmas Day 1885 at his home on Lynch (now Ashley Avenue) and Wentworth streets and was buried at Magnolia Cemetery. His papers are archived at the S.C. a Historical Society.
In 1889, Susan Hall sold the property to Felicia Chisholm who, in turn, sold it Sarah S. Simons in 1894, and it passed hand to a series of owners before World War I. Dr. Joseph Maybank, M.D. (1868-1942), his wife Harriet Lowndes Rhett (1872-1935) and family lived there from 1913 to 1916. Their eldest son Burnet Rhett Maybank (1899-1954) became mayor of Charleston, governor of South Carolina and a U.S. senator.
During World War II, the house was converted into apartments that later became condominiums: three in the main house and separate units for the carriage and kitchen houses. The main house shares a common staircase and has separate doorbells. Off street parking is provided for all units.
The house interior was remodeled when the Colonial Revival style became fashionable at the turn of the century. It is not known exactly who did the remodeling. Today the entrance is a large reception room paved with black and white squares. A large, handsome staircase on the north side ascends to a wide hallway on the main floor. The staircase has a newel post of carved oak, and a balustrade and very high paneled wainscot on the walls. The hall opens to a double parlor on the south and to the rear is a wide ballroom or dining room that extends the width of the house. The second-level parlors were remodeled with Colonial Revival elements, and oak flooring was installed. On the third level, the fireplaces were also replaced, but the wide pine flooring and plaster cornices are still intact. On the ground level a grey mantel in the Tutor Gothic style is possibly an original feature.
Note that William Crocker Courtney (1818-1885) is not to be confused with William Ashmead Courtenay (1831-1908), 46th mayor of Charleston. The Courtney and Courtenay families apparently were not related. A son of Edward Smith Courtenay and Elizabeth Storer Wade, William Ashmead Courtenay from 1850 to 1860 was occupied in the publishing and book selling business. He joined the Confederate military in 1861 and throughout the war was the Mercury’s war correspondent.
Courtenay established a shipping business upon his return to Charleston in 1866 and was elected mayor in 1879. Abhorring public debt, he reformed the city’s finances and oversaw the settlement of a bequest from William Enston which was used for the William Enston Home on upper King Street. He changed the Charleston fire department from a volunteer force to a paid department, reformed the police department and installed sidewalk curbstones of Winnsboro “blue” granite prominent throughout the lower half of the peninsula and paved some streets with “Belgian blocks” of the same stone. In addition, he was responsible for reorganizing the city public school system; Courtenay Middle School on upper Meeting St. was named in his honor. He established the Charleston City Year Book, an annual report of city departments along with historical essays. He was reelected to a second term in office unopposed in 1883.
Courtenay was also a member of the S.C. Historical Commission, the organization responsible for the stewardship of the state’s historic archives. He had the Shaftesbury Papers in the British Public Record Office transcribed and published, providing invaluable data about the settlement of the colony, which literally changed the understanding of Charleston’s early history.
Unlike most Charleston political leaders, Courtenay supported controversial Benjamin R. “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman’s election as governor in 1890. Estranged from the Charleston establishment, Courtenay left the city. In 1893, he established a cotton mill and mill village he named Newry. He died on March 17, 1908, at his home on Pendleton Street in Columbia. He was survived by his widow, the former Julia Anna Francis, and several children. His body was returned to Charleston for burial in Magnolia Cemetery.
My appreciation to Bob Stockton, Lish Thompson and Malcolm Hale for contributing to this article.
A Charlestonian by birth, Margaret (Peg) Middleton Rivers Eastman is actively involved in the preservation of Charleston’s rich cultural heritage. In addition to being a regular columnist for the Charleston Mercury, she has published through McGraw Hill, The History Press, Evening Post Books and Carologue, a publication of the South Carolina Historical Society. She is a member of the city of Charleston History Commission and serves on the board of the Friends of the Old Exchange.
