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Historic Charleston Foundation's two house museums, the Nathaniel Russell House and the Aiken-Rhett House, are jewels of Charleston architecture. Experience their splendor in this full-color photograph collection. Nathaniel Russell House Since 1808, visitors have admired the grand Federal town house of Charleston merchant Nathaniel Russell. Set amid spacious formal gardens, the Nathaniel Russell House is a National Historic Landmark and is widely recognized as one of America's most important neoclassical dwellings. The graceful interior, with elaborate plasterwork ornamentation, geometrically shaped rooms, and a magnificent free-flying staircase, is among the most exuberant ever created in early America. Today, the Nathaniel Russell House interprets the lives of the Russell family, as well as the African American slaves and artisans who were responsible for maintaining one of the South's grandest antebellum town houses. Aiken-Rhett House The Aiken-Rhett House stands alone as the most intact town house complex showcasing urban life in antebellum Charleston. Built in 1818 and greatly expanded by Governor and Mrs. William Aiken Jr. in the 1830s and 1850s, the house and slave quarters have survived virtually unaltered since 1858. A successful businessman, rice planter, distinguished politician, and governor of South Carolina, William Aiken Jr. was one of the state's wealthiest citizens. Following a well-established tradition among Charleston's elite, Governor Aiken and his wife, Harriet Lowndes Aiken, traveled in Europe and returned with magnificent fine art and furnishings. Today, visitors will find many of these objects in the same rooms for which they were purchased.

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9781596295858

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Established in 1947, Historic Charleston Foundation works to protect buildings, landscapes and cultural resources that make up Charleston's rich and irreplaceable heritage. HCF fulfills its educational mission through the interpretation of its collections and two museum sites: the Nathaniel Russell House, c. 1808, and the Aiken-Rhett House, c. 1818.

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