Meeting Street Memories: William Mason Smith’s 26 Meeting St.
- peter19892
- May 15
- 6 min read
By Peg Eastman
The mansion at 26 Meeting St. was built ca. 1822 for William Mason Smith, probably designed by architect William Jay. According to Ravenel’s Architects of Charleston, “Vague but persistent tradition says that the dwelling, now 26 Meeting St., was built by “an English architect,” perhaps Jay.” The attribution to William Jay is confirmed by a document in the papers of William Mason Smith — Jay, in behalf of Smith, signed a receipt for delivery of a shipment of roof slates to the Meeting Street premises, by John Howard, the supplier. The receipt shows Jay was involved in the house’s construction, and most likely designed it.
William Jay was born in Bath, Somersetshire, England. His father, a popular dissenting preacher, was a self-made man who provided his son an education and exposure to Bath’s Palladian architecture. Jay’s attraction to classical architecture earned him an apprenticeship to a London surveyor and architect. He began working in the Rational Neoclassical style which combined the use of the Greek Doric order, the Roman arch and dome, and a bold geometry. He employed the style in his design for the Albion Chapel in London, 1815.
In 1817 he set sail for Savannah, where his older sister was married into the Bolton family. Introduced to the social elite, he attracted clients and designed buildings in the austere Rational Neoclassical style and the popular Regency style, characterized by curving lines, iron verandas and whimsical and exotic detail. His Rational buildings included the Savannah Branch of the Bank of the United States (demolished), the Telfair House (later Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences), and the Scarborough House. His Regency designs included the Bulloch or Habersham House with its circular bedroom (razed to make way for an auditorium), and the Owens-Thomas House with its curving portico, iron veranda, and a flying bridge over the stair hall. He possibly designed the Savannah Theatre (also destroyed), a plain Classical building.
Although Jay is well known for his magnificent buildings in Savannah, he is less well known in Charleston. In 1820 he placed an advertisement in the Courier: “WILLIAM JAY offers his services to the inhabitants of Charleston, and the State generally, in his profession as an ARCHITECT. Any command left at his office in Jones Building, St. Michael’s Alley, will meet with immediate response.” (Jones’ Building was a back extension of the Jones Hotel, operated by Jehu Jones, a “free man of color”, at 71 Broad St. Artist Samuel F. B. Morse occupied Jay’s studio there after he left it. Morse became more famous for his development of the Morse Code.
That same month he was appointed architect to the South Carolina Board of Public Works, a position he held for a short time. In that capacity, he is believed to have designed the Beaufort District Court House at Coosawhatchie (now gone). He began two others — the Colleton District Court House in Walterboro, and the Fairfield District Court House in Winnsboro — which were finished by architect Robert Mills. Jay also submitted a series of designs for public buildings in Charleston which were not accepted.
The most impressive extant mansion attributed to Jay (though without documentation) is 172 Rutledge Avenue, built for Patrick Duncan, which is now Ashley Hall. It has requisite Regency features — curvaceous façade, eccentrically spaced columns, an iron veranda (on the west side) and some Gothic arched windows, an exotic touch. The Robinson-Rhett House at 48 Elizabeth St. and Hampton-Preston House in Columbia are also reminiscent of Jay’s Regency style.
The William Turpin Weyman House, built ca. 1820 at the corner of Meeting and Charlotte streets, facing Marion Square, was strikingly similar in design to 26 Meeting, and possibly was designed by Jay. It was demolished before 1945. The L. Mendel Rivers Federal Building, designed by Charleston architect John Califf, Jr., of Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle and Wolff, was built on the site in 1964. It now houses The Dewberry, a hotel.
For unknown reasons, Jay returned to his native England sometime after he was listed in the city directory in 1822. He received a government appointment to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and died there that same year.
William Mason Smith (1788-1838) was the privileged son of the Rt. Rev. Robert Smith, the first Episcopal bishop of South Carolina, and the minister at St. Philip’s Church for 45 years.
Robert Smith was born in Worstead, County Norfolk, England, and attended Norwich Grammar School, before William Mason, a member of Parliament, sponsored him to be enrolled at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1753. After graduation, he was ordained by the bishop of Ely. When the associate rector of St. Philip’s Church in colonial Charles Town resigned, at Mason’s recommendation Smith was awarded the coveted position. He was 25 years old.
Young and comely according to his portrait, Smith soon married Elizabeth Paget, an heiress who brought to the marriage Brabant, a plantation of nearly 3,000 acres on the Cooper River. With many influential relatives, she also provided an entry into the inner circle of Charles Town’s society.
Smith became a supporter of the American Revolution and fought as a private at the Battle of Fort Sulivan on June 28, 1776, and again enlisted as a private to fight in the defense of Charles Town in 1780. He was captured and imprisoned after the city fell. Smith was offered his freedom and property if he would take an oath to the crown. His indignant reply, “Rather would I be hanged by the King of England than go off and hang myself in shame and despair like Judas.” With other prominent patriots he was exiled to Philadelphia in 1781.
Meanwhile, Brabant served as temporary quarters for Lord Cornwallis. Hearing that St. Philip’s Church’s silver was buried on the property, the British soldiers violently threatened the overseer, who refused to disclose anything. Ironically, the silver was buried beneath the tree where three incomplete hangings occurred, an anecdote that St. Philipites still love to tell.
In 1783, Smith returned as rector of St Philip's Church. He was unanimously elected the first bishop of South Carolina and was consecrated on September 13, 1795, the sixth bishop in the American Episcopal succession.
Smith began the “Academy” with Classical instruction in his rectory on Glebe Street, and with other civic and political leaders petitioned the General Assembly to establish the college that was first envisioned in 1770. Smith was among those named to the Board of Trustees in the charter of the College of Charleston in 1785 and a few months later, he was voted its first principal (president). After he retired in 1797, the school gradually declined and nearly closed its doors. The college was revived in 1824 with the hiring of the Reverend Jasper Adams from Brown University.
It seems only natural that Robert Smith named his son after his benefactor William Mason. Born with rice planter connections, the younger Smith became a successful planter and built a handsome residence in town to enjoy his prominence. The house is set back from the street. It is Rational Neoclassical on the exterior, with arched doors and windows (in the arch-within-arch format then trending), brownstone inserts with Greek key motif below windows on the scored stucco façade, and triple-tiered piazzas, masked on both ends. The piazzas have the “correct” sequence of orders — Greek Doric on the first level, Ionic on the second and Corinthian on the third. The interior is more Regency. The entrance foyer has decorative elements reminiscent of Jay’s Owens-Thomas House. The vaulted stair hall has an ovoid spiral staircase, of the kind first used in the Adamesque period in residences such as the Gabriel Manigault and Nathaniel Russell houses. The double parlors have doors that lead onto the piazzas. A gate with piers and a wood fence above the coping encloses a large garden.
Bishop Smith died in 1801 and was buried in St. Philip’s east churchyard beside his family. In the 1920s the church chancel was extended east and his grave site was rediscovered. His memorial slab was moved to the outside of the church; his remains were undisturbed and are now part of the new altar foundation. In 1994, a marble memorial to Bishop Smith was dedicated at the foot of the altar rail steps. William Mason Smith is also buried in St. Philip’s churchyard.
Robert Smith's legacy to the College of Charleston was long revered, and the “Bishop Robert Smith Award” was for many years the highest achievement that an undergraduate student could earn. Times change. In 2020, the College of Charleston made the decision to remove Smith’s name, the reason being Smith's ownership of slaves. President Andrew Hsu said that his decision came when the discovery was made that “at the time of his death, Smith enslaved more than 200 people.”
My appreciation to Bob Stockton and Malcolm Hale for contributing to this article.
