31 Archdale Street

31 Archdale Street has a history which stretches back to the era of the Lords Proprietors ownership in the late 17th century. The 34-acre parcel from which 31 Archdale was later carved, purchased by Captain James Moore from John, Earl of Bath, Palatine, and the other Lords Proprietors in October of 1698, butted up against the city on its eastward and southward boundaries. After passing to trustees Thomas Broughton, Esquire and John Guerard after Moore’s death, Isaac Mazyck purchased the land (sans two acres which Broughton kept for himself) on February 7, 1712. His death would begin the major division of the land acquired from the Lords Proprietors, and also the involvement of women in ownership of the property.

Upon her father's death, Mariann Mazyck Godin received two acres of the plot, marked MG in this 1742 plat which accompanied a deed of partition between her siblings​. Godin's two acres were further divided up between her children as shown by the 1769 plat below. Modern-day 31 Archdale lies in the parcel marked "Stake 1."

The parcel marked Stake 1 was supposed to be passed to Godin's daughter Catherine Godin Lennox, but she died before she could inherit the property. The parcel was instead supposed to go to Godin's granddaughter Catherine Lennox upon her 21 ^st  birthday, although its unclear if she ever received this property because the chain of title drops off at this point until 1802​.

The Godin-possibly Lennox ownership of the property would kick off a long line of women ownership, which included two women of color and saw only two known male owners from the late eighteenth century until 1964. The stories of these women stand out in a time where women had few property rights.

The link between the Godin-possibly-Lennox ownership of the property and the next confirmed owner is unclear. Chain of title research has not yet been able to uncover information about this period, but at some point between the 1769 Godin deed of partition and 1802, a woman named Elizabeth Byer Byrd gained ownership of the property.

While it is unclear how Byrd obtained ownership of the property that became 31 Archdale, but in this 1802 power to convey, a marriage settlement between Byrd and her husband, William Byrd, is referenced​.

Under common law in the eighteenth century, a woman's property, even her clothes and her jewelry, went to her husband upon marriage. Under equity law, women found a way to maintain some control over their property through marriage settlements, which essentially separated their estates from their husband's, often giving women the right to sell or mortgage the property, gift it, or write a will​. This helped women ensure their financial security, protect their property if creditors came after their husband's property, and protect inheritances of children

Little is known about Byrd's settlement as the original document has not been found, but it is likely she came into marriage with the property as a majority of these settlements were made at the time of marriage, not after.​ In the deed giving Samuel Byrd (relation unknown) the power to convey the property, the document states that Elizabeth Byer Byrd has the right to grant this power regardless of her marital status, and also that she would receive the proceeds from the sale​.

Therefore, despite the normal restrictions her married status would have imposed upon her, Elizabeth Byer Byrd was able to appoint Samuel Byrd as her trustee and receive $1,500 from the sale of the property to Adam Tunno, a prominent Scottish merchant and member of the white Charleston elite in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.​

Tunno only owned the property which later became 31 Archdale for four years before selling it to Margaret Ballingall, a free woman of color, in 1806. Ballingall (sometimes Bettingall) purchased the property from him for the same price he paid for it, which might portray the sale as an ordinary transfer of property. However, Tunno and Ballingall had a much closer relationship than the transaction might suggest.

Ballingall and Tunno lived together from at least the 1790's. People who knew the couple would state in a later court case that she was the "head and front of Tunno's household, superintending everything" until his death in 1832. They lived together at his house at 89 East Bay Street, today part of Charleston's famous Rainbow Row.​

The couple's relationship was viewed differently by the city's white elite versus the black and brown community. The white elite identified Bettingall as Tunno's housekeeper​, whereas people of color who knew them stated that she was his wife.​ While they never legally married, they did have two children together; one, a daughter named Barbara Tunno Barguet, surviving to adulthood. Despite not being identified as Tunno's children in his will, both Barguet and Ballingall's daughter from another relationship, Hagar Cole, received money in his will.

The inheritance from Tunno's will was not Ballingall's only source of wealth. Besides 31 Archdale, Ballingall also owned:

• A property on Bedon's Alley adjacent to the Tunno East Bay Street property
• A home at 19 Archdale Street, where Ballingall lived after the East Bay Street home was sold after Tunno's death
• At least one other property; a house on Pitt Street left to her daughter Hagar Cole in her willl

At Ballingall's death, her estate was valued at $7,355, although that amount does not include the Pitt Street house, nor four of the 11 enslaved people she owned. She likely died in late 1839 or early 1840, as her will was probated in January of 1840. Her executor sold the 31 Archdale property that same month to Robert Fleming Henry.

Robert Fleming Henry only owned the property from 1840 to his death in 1848. His sisters Ann Henry Ross and Mary Henry inherited the 31 Archdale property, as well as three additional properties to the south​. These properties were only a small part of the Fleming-Henry family fortune.

Ann Henry married James Ross, who was from another wealthy Charleston family​. The family lived at 329 East Bay Street and had four children; a son who died prior to the Civil War, another son who died at the Battle of Petersburg, and two daughters, Elizabeth H. and Mary Jane Ross​. James Ross died in 1839.

During the Civil War, Ann Henry Ross took her daughters and sister, Mary Henry, to Columbia, South Carolina. Mary died during the family's time in Columbia, leaving Ann Henry Ross the sole heiress of the Fleming-Henry estate which included the 31 Archdale property. ​Upon their return to Charleston, the Ross family moved into 1 Meeting Street, where Ann Henry Ross lived with her daughters.

When Ann Ross died in 1887, her elder daughter, Elizabeth H. Ross Bennett, was made the executrix of the substantial Fleming-Henry-Ross estate. Bennett died in December 1891, leaving her younger sister, Mary Jane Ross, as the sole heiress of her family's vast estate, including the 31 Archdale property​.

Following the death of her sister, Mary Jane Ross did not remain in Charleston for long. In May of 1892, Ross set off on a twenty year trip around the globe with her friend, Annie M. James, residing for periods in Europe and Asia. James wrote in a later book about the travels that:

“Love of History, Art, Music, and the benefit of travel, led us on, and on, ‘not visiting’ but living in the great centres of Europe, - then India, China, and Japan, culminating in a visit to Central Asia.”​

Upon their return from Europe, Ross and James continued living together at 1 Meeting Street. Ross also owned a summer home in Asheville, NC, where she died in August of 1922.

Ross's substantial estate was divided up and sold off after her death, benefitting a number of charities and organizations including the Roper Hospital and the Charleston Library Society. As for 31 Archdale, the property was kept as part of her estate until it was sold by her trustees in 1944, ending the century of Henry-Ross family ownership.

While not owners of the property, it is important to recognize some of the women renters and residents of 31 Archdale during Mary Jane Ross’s ownership. Around the turn of the century, Ward 4 was known as Charleston’s redlight district. While there was no law confining prostitution to a certain area of the city in the mid-nineteenth century, brothels tended to cluster in the Ward. 31 Archdale is right in the center of the four block area bounded by Logan, King, Queen, and Market streets that formed the core of the four block redlight district in the city.

The earliest confirmation of 31 Archdale’s use as a brothel comes from the 1902 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, seen here, where the building is labelled "FB" for female boarding. Josephine Engles was also listed as a "Madame" living at the property in the city directory that year.

The following chart lists the names of the women who lived at 31 Archdale during this period:

Two names to note are "Marie Mellard" and "Marion Maillard." ​Mellard was listed in the colored section of the city directory, whereas Maillard was listed in the white section. When one name was listed in one section, the other name was not listed anywhere else in the directory. Given this, it is possible that Mellard and Maillard are the same person. Mellard may have been a light skinned woman of color, and therefore may have been able to pass as white. She may have used "Marion Maillard" as part of her assumed identity​.

While little is known about these woman other than the appearance of their names in city directories, they were a part of the larger story of vice and prostitution during this time period in Ward 4. By 1913, however, a married couple was listed as living at the address in that year, suggesting the brothel era had come to an end​.

Miriam N. Triest and Mildred Solomon purchased the 31 Archdale property from the Ross estate in 1944 as part of a transaction involving multiple properties. Within a year, Triest and Solomon sold it to Wilhelmina S. Holmes, a woman of color who was married to William C. Holmes​.

Holmes was the sole name listed in the real estate transfer notice for 31 Archdale from Triest and Solomon despite she and her husband being married by at least 1925. Although he did not die until 1956​, hers is also the sole name listed in both of the building permit notices found for the property, one for repairs in 1945, another for an addition in July of 1949. Holmes owned not only 31 Archdale, but also a property she rented out at 78 Radcliffe Street.

It is also important to note that Holmes and her husband were the first confirmed owner-occupiers of 31 Archdale, as prior to their ownership, the house had a long history of being rented out​. Holmes lived there until her death on December 1, 1962, at which time it passed to her children and their spouses, who conveyed the property to the administrator of Holmes' estate, who sold the property in 1964​.

Holmes would be the last woman to have purchased the property before it was turned into condominiums in the 1990s, ending a chain of near-continuous woman ownership lasting back to the eighteenth century​.

More change was coming to 31 Archdale than just the end of women ownership. John D. Muller Jr. purchased the property, likely as a part of a half block of historic homes facing Archdale, Magazine, and West streets, that Muller purchased to renovate and turn into rental units​.

The project  was representative of his involvement with preservation in the city; he became the first Executive Director of the Preservation Society of Charleston in 1969. He also served as a trustee of Historic Charleston Foundation. He was described in a 1984 Charleston News and Courier article as one of the city's:

"...foremost preservationists and a vital mover in preserving the old city."

Muller owned the property until 1982, when it came into the possession of South Carolina National Bank, his trustee.

In 1997, South Carolina National Bank sold the property to James T. Johnson. Johnson brought about possibly the greatest change to 31 Archdale Street since the end of the chain of women ownership. Throughout the latter half of 1997, Johnson went through the Board of Architectural Review (BAR) process for constructing a new house on the property.

Johnson then constructed a two story main dwelling, along with a two story outbuilding to the rear between 1997-98. In 1998, he split the main house into two condominiums, Unit A on the first floor and Unit B on the second floor. He designated the outbuilding as a third condominium, Unit C. As a result of this new construction, this period saw not only great change in ownership of the property, but also great change in the physical appearance of the property.

As mentioned in the previous section, the current primary dwelling at 31 Archdale Street is not the first building to be built on the lot, nor is it the building that was present historically. The first reference to a building on the property was found in the 1840 deed between Margaret Ballingall’s executor and Robert F. Henry, which listed a two story dwelling on the property. Based on the description in the deed, the first dwelling at 31 Archdale would have been built prior to 1840.

This is likely the same building whose footprint appears in the 1852 Bridgens and Allen map. A two-story frame structure was still listed on the property in the 1861 Charleston city census. However, by the creation of the 1872 Bird's Eye map of the city, the lot is empty.

The first dwelling may have been a victim of damage during the Civil War as many buildings in the area were damaged by shelling. It could also have been a victim of the 1864 fire which destroyed its neighbor, 29 Archdale Street.

The next map to feature the 31 Archdale property, the 1882 Lamblé plat, denoted a rectangular structure, which like its predecessor was adjacent to the northern boundary of the property, but conversely, its primary façade on Archdale Street was setback from the street unlike the former dwelling.

In the 1871-1875 ward book, the value of the property jumped from $1,675 in 1873 to $3,000 in 1874. A jump in value of this substantial amount indicated the structure from the 1882 Lamblé plat was built during this time frame from 1873 to 1874, which was during Ann Ross’s ownership of the property.

The building appeared with the same footprint through the 1888, 1902, 1944, 1951, and 1955 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, as well as in a 1938 photograph. The last reference to the building was in a 1965 article about a man who had died in a fire in the outbuilding on the property, but the trail went cold in terms of a building on the property after this date.

Before 1997, however, the building was completely demolished, as pictures from James T. Johnson's application submitted to the Board of Architectural Review for new construction on the property in that year show an empty lot at the address. The most likely demolition date falls between 1982 and 1997, during the South Carolina National Bank ownership of the property. The current dwelling on the property was constructed between 1997 and 1998.

While the building at 31 Archdale may not be historic, the property has borne witness to Charleston history. It holds the special story of women's property ownership from the early days of city through the mid-twentieth century.

By examining the stories of women such as Mariann Mazyck Godin, Elizabeth Byer Byrd, Margaret Ballingall, the Henry-Ross women, and Wilhelmina Holmes, it is possible to see how women were able to not only own property in a time where men were the primary conveyors and purchasers of property, but also how they were able to use that property in some cases to help solidify their financial independence and also that of their relatives, and even charitable organizations in some cases.

The property also holds the stories of multiple women such as Josephine Engles, Marie Mellard (possibly Marion Maillard), and Nellie B. Warren, who were all involved in the world of Ward 4 prostitution in the early twentieth century. While they may have left less of a mark on the historic record as renters instead of owners, their stories offer a glimpse into a little known and little researched aspect of Charleston's history.

Whether an owner of the property or a renter, 31 Archdale Street unites all of these women and their stories to be connected to the larger picture of Charleston's history.

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