72-74 Tradd Street
Fotheringham-McNeil Tenements
circa 1740
Local merchant James Matthews constructed this three-story over raised basement, double tenement building circa 1740. The house features a Flemish bond brick pattern and nine over nine light windows. The gambrel roof with a jerkin-head gable is a rare surviving example of a roof form once common in 18th century Charleston.
Charleston attorney James Grindley purchased the property in 1762. Grindley rented one half of the building and used the other half as his residence and law office. At his death in 1765 the property was deeded to his nephews, Dr. Alexander Fotheringham and Dr. Archibald McNeill, who each used half of the building as a primary residence. Their wives, Isabel Fotheringham and Mary McNeill, were granddaughters of South Carolina Chief Justice Robert Wright and the nieces of Sir James Wright, Royal Governor of Georgia. It was rare in Charleston that the owners occupied tenement buildings as they were usually built for rental purposes.
In the mid-nineteenth century the building was converted to a single-family residence by piercing interior walls. The building originally had two entrances at the basement level. By the early twentieth century the main entrance at the eastern end had been raised to the first floor. In the 1960s the window and entrance at the western end were enlarged to accommodate a garage.
Marker is on Tradd Street, on the left when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
