65 Cannon Street
Charleston, SC, USA

James Sparrow House

The James Sparrow House is an excellent example of a Charleston single house in the late Federal style. It is named for a Charleston butcher who acquired the property at 65 Cannon St. in 1797. Several other butchers owned and lived in the house by 1825 when Christian David Happoldt bought the house. (Charleston County deed book O9, page 366) It remained in his family until 1907. (Charleston County deed book U24, page 538) It is a two and one-half story stuccoed brick house, raised on a basement of the same material. The masonry has an embellished by a dog-tooth cornice, with full return, repeated in the rake of the gable end. Quoins of stuccoed brick articulate the corners and a stringcourse of the same material delineates the floor levels. Two interior chimneys, with Gothic arched hoods, on the east side of the house were reconstructed after the earthquake of 1886. The house was listed in the National Register January 30, 1998.

By 1995, the house was in terrible condition. Many of its interior details had been lost, and the exterior had suffered the loss of its piazzas. Robert and Nancy Mikell purchased the house and undertook a restoration. An addition to the rear was designed by Charleston architect Randolph Martz.

National Register of Historic Places - James Sparrow House

Statement of Significance:

The James Sparrow House (ca. 1818), at 65 Cannon Street in Cannons borough, a historic suburb annexed by the City of Charleston in 1849, is a two and one-half story stuccoes brick house, raised on a basement of the same material. The masonry is embellished by a dog-tooth cornice, with full return, repeated in the wake of the gable end. Quoins of stuccoes brick articulate the corners and a stringcourse of the same material delineates the floor levels.

The main portion of the house is two bays wide and five bays deep. The door, centered in the west elevation, is transomed. A window is centered in the gable end. There are two gabled dormers on the west (piazza) slope of the roof and a pediment with a fanlight, centered over the west elevation, has been restored. Windows are fitted with interior shutters, paneled on the first level and louvered on the second.

The gable roof has wooden shingles under the present standing seam tin covering. Two interior chimneys, with Gothic arched hoods, on the east side of the house were reconstructed after the earthquake of 1886. The house has a typical single house floor plan, with two primary rooms on each floor, divided by a central hall/stair hall. The surviving interior decorations are typical of the late Federal period. Surviving architectural details include doors, wainscot, door, and window surrounds, and much of the original stair. The construction features pegged joinery, pit-sawn lumber, cut nails, Charleston grey brick laid in Flemish bond, and other period material and building methods.

The historic piazza, which had been demolished, has been restored along its former lines, and iron railings, curving at their lower ends, as shown on a plat of 1858, have been restored on the brownstone steps. One enters through a doorway, set in a wooden screen at the street end of the piazza, and proceeds along the length of the house to the center, where another door provides entrance into the central hall, which thus serves as the entrance foyer, circulation center and stair hall. The piazza, screened at the street end, serves as a semi-private, outdoor living space, transitional between the house and garden.

A plat of the property adjacent to the east of present-day 65 Cannon Street, dated April 1858, partially illustrates several buildings on the lot of present-day 65 Cannon Street, which is identified as belonging to the estate of C. D. Happoldt in 1858. The existing house at present-day 65 Cannon Street is depicted as a "2 Story Brick" house, with piazza and front steps and a frame two-story rear extension. Behind the house was a "Shed", material undesignated but probably also frame; a "2 Story Wood" kitchen building; and behind it a small "Wood" structure, probably a privy. All the outbuildings were demolished before the present owners acquired the property in 1995.

It is possible that the kitchen building was older than the main house and that Sparrow resided there before increasing prosperity enabled him to build the existing house in the late Federal style, sometime before he sold the property in 1818.

The earthquake of 1886 did small damage to the residence. The house was described by the earthquake inspectors as built of brick, with a tin roof. All the walls were in good shape, but the chimneys were cracked. Their recommendation was to "Rebuild chimneys from below ceiling joists."