The Story of George Walton Williams

George Walton Williams was born in 1820 in Burke County, North Carolina and, in 1822, moved with his family to a valley in northern Georgia. There, his father was one of the most prominent farmers. When Williams was 17 and having had some experience working in the grocery business, the young man left home to walk across the state of Georgia to Augusta where he pursued a career outside of agriculture; the trip took approximately a week by foot, and he had only $10 to his name.

Once in Augusta, Williams began working as a clerk at the grocery business of Hand & Scranton. Co-owner Daniel Hand had a similar background to Williams, having been raised on a farm in Connecticut and, at age 16, traveled to Augusta to work for his uncle in the grocery business. Hand’s hiring of Williams began a lifelong business relationship between the two men and, at the age of 21, Williams purchased Scranton’s share of the business; the name of the business then changed to Hand & Williams.

Williams, being temperate, convinced Hand to cease the sale of liquor, a large percentage of their profit. Though dubious, Hand agreed, and they saw a steady increase in profits over the next decade. In 1852, Williams decided to open a grocery business in Charleston, South Carolina. There, he began the first city’s temperate wholesale grocery business known as George W. Williams & Co. Hand, who remained a partner, then moved to New York because of his opposition to secession by the southern states.

In 1861, Williams remained in Charleston when the Civil War began and, with the passing of the Sequestration Act, realized he needed to protect Hand’s interest in the business. Thanks to Williams, Hand’s interest remained intact and was invested. Williams later returned this investment to Hand, having at least tripled it to equal a sum of around $1.5 million. Following the return of this fortune, Hand set up a fund to benefit the elementary education of black students in the South.

In a quote from the book The History of Banking in South Carolina, “at the breaking out of the War between the States we find Mr. Williams at the head of two of the largest commercial houses in the South, an Alderman of the City of Charleston, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee…; director of the Bank of South Carolina, and also two railroad companies…” Williams also sat on church and education boards. He was a man well rounded in the interests of his business and personal life.

During the Civil War, Williams ultimately closed his grocery business and was appointed by the State Legislature to procure supplies for the South. He was also put in charge of procuring food and provisions for Charleston. Through this endeavor, he secured and issued food to the people of Charleston and continued to do so even as the city changed hands from Confederate to Federal control.

Williams also played a part in that exchange of control. In his capacity as a city alderman, Williams and fellow alderman W. H Gilliland, conveyed a message from Mayor Macbeth to Lt. Colonel A.G. Bennett of the incoming Federal Army, releasing the control of the city to him in the wake of the retreat of the Confederate army. The two men informed Bennett of the disarrayed state of the city and need for assistance in extinguishing fires set by the retreating army.

Williams also asked for assistance in protecting food stores so that they could be issued to the people remaining in Charleston. His wish was granted; he was able to feed 20,000 people over the remaining three months of the war.

Williams saw the investment in Confederate currency as a threat to the stability of his wealth and took measures to secure his fortune. He used sterling silver to pay his Northern suppliers, invested in the profitable exchange of cotton, and later used profits to purchase real estate.

Any ships containing imported goods were sent to his business partners in New York. Only one of Williams’ ships successfully ran the blockade in the harbor in Charleston. This ship made it through with 3,000 pounds of coffee from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the coffee was sold to the Confederate army.

Following the war, Williams procured a charter for opening a bank, reopened his grocery and import business, built new warehouses in destroyed areas of the city, invested in businesses necessary to the revitalization of Charleston. Simultaneously, he built the Carolina Savings Bank at 1 Broad Street, and began plans to build a large mansion on a property he had purchased at 10-12-14-16 Meeting Street.

The property (at the time known also as 10 Meeting Street) was purchased in 1863 for $40,100 in Confederate currency from Henrietta Catherine Baker. The property extended from Meeting Street back to Church Street.

Williams hired W.P Russell & Co. in 1875 to construct the Meeting Street residence. Russell had previously hired New York architect W.E. Speir, who likely designed the building. The carriage house and stables were erected, and the cornerstone of the mansion was laid in April of 1875. Construction continued until completion in 1878.

In a local newspaper article on December 20, 1877, the mansion is referred to as the “Williams Mansion” in a piece discussing the painting of the interior of the residence by Mr. A.L. Lankan, a well-known Baltimore fresco and encaustic painter.

In March of 1878, an article appeared in the Charleston News & Courier citing the Williams house as “A Magnificent Mansion” and naming it “the handsomest and most complete private residence in the South.”

Indeed, it was the largest residence in the city—approximately 24,000 square feet— including a grand music room, observation tower overlooking the harbor, and an indoor greenhouse under the piazza, in addition to the one to the rear of the property.

The Williams family, including Williams, his wife, Martha, and his four children, Sarah (sometimes known as Sallie), George Jr., Martha, and Henry, moved into the mansion.

Williams was dedicated to his family and had tragically lost his first wife Louisa, their seven children, and two of his children with Martha to yellow fever epidemics. As they grew older, Williams’ wealth allowed him to aid his children in the procurement of houses near his own, south of Broad Street. The eldest, Sarah, was the last to obtain such a house.

Following Williams’ death in 1903 and Martha Williams’ death in 1905, Sarah Williams Calhoun, shortly thereafter was conveyed the Williams Mansion on Meeting Street. She was married to Patrick Calhoun, one of many grandsons of the late John C. Calhoun.

John C. Calhoun, having died in 1850, was never associated with the property on Meeting Street in any way. Sarah was living in Atlanta at the time she inherited the Williams Mansion. She continued to own the property in her name, but the following years saw financial hardship for Sarah and her husband.

Patrick Calhoun’s business attempts in Ohio and later California were met with a lack of success and myriad legal troubles. Sarah needed money, so the Williams Mansion was leased to the Villa Margarita, which changed the name of the mansion to “The Calhoun Mansion” for marketing and business purposes. A luxury hotel, the Villa Margarita used the mansion as an adjunct for the hotel’s guests.

Over the next several years, the property was leased to traveling guests, local civic groups, charity art exhibitions, and even for the sale of antiques. Upon Sarah Williams Calhoun’s death in 1928, a series of lawsuits ensued over debts of the estate and ownership of the mansion.

Shortly thereafter, the family was unable to pay Sarah’s debts, so the mansion was foreclosed on and transferred to a creditor, R.S. Manigault. The contents, which appeared to include some of the remaining Williams family possessions, were sold at public auction.

Portions of the property were subdivided and later sold to create 17-19 Church Street and 10 & 12 Meeting Street.

In 1933, after renovations, the mansion was reopened, and the next year sold to Veta McClure Findley. Findley in turn sold it to Daniel Huger Jr. in 1941, who sold it to Charles Rausch in the same year. Rausch reopened the house to tourists for room rentals (the house was cited as housing men of the U.S. Army and Navy in 1942. In fact, the house was distinct in also having housed a female officer during this time).

The house remained in the Rausch family, eventually passing to Dorothy Rausch Ayers. Ayers sold the property to Gedney Howe in 1976 at a time when the house was in great disrepair. Over the next 20 years, the Howes significantly restored the property before selling it to Howard Stahl, the current owner.

In 2004, Stahl placed the property under a preservation easement and used his significant Gilded Age art collection to continue the use of the mansion as a museum. His mission is to showcase the beauty of the time period, while also providing an insight into the lens through which the wealthy, like the Williams family, lived and viewed the aesthetic world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Williams published a book in 1871 of his two Grand Tour expeditions to the Old and New World, in 1855 and 1868. The book was privately printed in Charleston and was only for Williams’ family and friends to enjoy. The book is more than 500 pages and recounts the extraordinary travels of Williams where he was exposed to the architecture and art of the Gilded Age. He recreated it all in Charleston at his mansion.

While most of the original Williams Mansion contents were lost over time, Stahl has endeavored to recreate the Gilded Age mansion as Williams would have developed it during his excursions on the Grand Tour. Through his travels to Europe and the Middle East in the 1880s, Williams collected art and antiquities throughout the world and brought them to Charleston. The Williams Mansion, as it is now, showcases a collector’s lifetime passion and is one of America’s greatest Gilded Age art collections and stands alone in the South as the only one of its kind.

This residence, while previously called the “Calhoun Mansion,” had its origin and life as the Williams Mansion. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Stahl closed the museum and took the opportunity to return the mansion to its original name.

John C. Calhoun had been dead 25 years when the mansion was built. Neither he nor any one in his family had anything to do whatsoever with the Williams Mansion. The name change in the early 20th century to “Calhoun” was singularly for business promotional reasons. It was completely untrue.

The mansion was built by Williams, a man who amassed his fortune through his own enterprise, hard work, and integrity. Williams and his family owned and lived in the mansion for a period of 50 years. The structure at 14-16 Meeting Street stands as a testament to the legacy of George Walton Williams, a man who, virtually unaccompanied, reconstructed the economy and commercial life in Charleston following the Civil War.

Through hard work and ingenuity, Williams accumulated a wealth of $25 million over his lifetime, not only for himself, but also for his family and business partners despite the era being one of difficulty, strife, and unrest. He was a man of compassion, charity, and decency giving much of his wealth and time to the people of Charleston.

Indeed, Williams’ role in the city’s history was one absolutely essential to the survival of Charleston, the welfare of its people, and that of its commerce. The name has now been returned to the original name of the Williams Mansion, as it properly should be.

A more in-depth study of Williams and his rise to prominence may be found in The History of Banking in South Carolina from 1712 to 1900 by George Walton Williams and George Sherwood Dickerson.