75 Anson Street - Joseph Legare House

 

Laurens Street ends in front of 75 Anson Street. This house was built around 1800 by Joseph Legare, whose father owned the property next door at 79 Anson Street.

Legare, pronounced "Luh-gree," is an old Charleston name. It is my understanding that the first Legare immigrated here in the late 17th century. While the Legare ancestry is French and is associated with the Huguenots escaping persecution in France, the early Legares seem to have been members, not of the Huguenot Church on Queen Street, but of the Circular Congregational Church on Meeting Street. Both Joseph Legare and his father, Daniel Legare, are buried there.

75 Anson is a single house, made of wood. However, there is a gracefulness to the exterior of the house that I don't always see in a single house, and I attribute this to the curving staircase in the front.

The house was modified and updated after 1838 by a subsequent owner, Benjamin Howland, who moved to Charleston from the north. Howland is the one who added the graceful marble stairs and wrought iron rail.

After the Historic Charleston Foundation stabilized 75 Anson during the Ansonborough "experiment" and later sold the property, the purchaser embarked on an extensive restoration, painting it a color called "elephant gray." Thankfully, as you can see from the photograph, the exterior color has been changed.

Recently, I gave a private walking tour to four ladies from Atlanta and Seattle, and we roamed through Ansonborough. 75 Anson was one of their favorite properties, so they posed for my photograph of the house. Three of these ladies took a tour with me in February of 2016, and they continue to contact me before they return to Charleston to reserve a private tour. That first tour was walking the "walled city"; for subsequent tours, I map out different areas of the historic district to concentrate on. Ansonborough, with its history and architecture, was a good choice, and the icing on the cake was farther down Anson Street when a homeowner invited us in!

We will continue exploring Anson Street next week...