British naval captain George Anson purchased about 63 acres north of the city limits on March 23, 1727
British naval captain George Anson (above) purchsed 63 acres that became Ansonborough in March 1727; the William Rhett House (right) on Hassell Street.
While we don’t know when in April 1670 Charles Towne was founded, we do know the date when the city’s first suburb was established. On March 23, 1727, British naval captain George Anson purchased about 63 acres north of the city limit at the time.
Legend links Anson’s purchase to seller Thomas Gadsden’s gambling debts, but the claim cannot be substantiated. When Anson’s naval career carried him to victories and a lordship in England, his attorney subdivided the land into lots, with George and Anson streets reflecting his ownership. Originally bounded by present-day Calhoun, Anson, Society, and Meeting streets, the neighborhood now stretches east to East Bay, west to Meeting, and south to the City Market, incorporating businesses, schools, churches, and a synagogue, as well as homes of a who’s who of Charleston’s history.
The homes of American patriot Henry Laurens (left) and the abolistionist Grimke sisters (right) were both on East Bay Street.
American patriots Henry Laurens and Christopher Gadsden; the abolitionist Grimke sisters; captain William Rhett (capturer of pirates, whose house is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in town); author DuBose Heyward; writer Dawn Langley Simmons; and Charles C. Leslie, a Black businessman, fishmonger, and key player in local culinary history, all lived here over the years.
Many of the structures date from after the 1838 fire that decimated the area, and several were restored after the Historic Charleston Foundation bought, renovated, and sold them in the late 1950s. While the effort preserved the architecture and launched similar movements across the country, it led to gentrification, changing the neighborhood’s integrated demographics.
In the mid-1960s, nearly 15 acres of homes and businesses (many Black-owned) were lost when the city built its municipal auditorium between George and Calhoun streets. Now, a vital part of Charleston, Ansonborough reflects, in many ways, a microcosm of the city’s history.
