Through his hard work and vision, George Walton Williams amassed a fortune for himself and his investors, becoming one of the richest men of the South following the Civil War. Eventually, he rose to the ranks of the wealthiest in the country, on par with the Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Mellon, Frick and Astor families, to name just a few.

As many cultured young men of that time did, Williams traveled the world on the Grand Tour twice (1855 and 1866) where he visited the most prominent and vibrant cities in Europe, South America and Asia to learn their cultures, art and histories.

Even though Williams was a Charleston city leader and helped to support and feed the people of the city through the Civil War and while it transitioned into Federal hands, he was considered an “outsider” because he wasn’t a native Charlestonian. Nevertheless, he continued to expand his business and real estate holdings in Charleston and purchased four lots on Meeting Street, where the mansion stands today. His foresight in transitioning away from Confederate currency to gold and silver before the war ended also enriched his fortune as those committed to the South lost theirs.

After his second Grand Tour, Williams began envisioning his own Gilded Age mansion in Charleston, which would become one of the iconic homes on the peninsula. The Gilded Age was a period from the 18th to the early 20th century when the wealthy, non-nobility of America emulated the royal families of Europe and sought to live a life, as they did, of opulence.

Williams built what he saw in Europe: an Italianate Revival mansion that he filled with art and antiquities he’d collected during his years of travel. When finished in 1878, the 24,000 square foot Williams Mansion became the Gilded Age mansion of the South, an equal to those residences that were built by the very wealthiest Americans in New York and Rhode Island.

After Williams died in 1903, the family eventually fell on hard times, and the mansion went into foreclosure, with the furnishings and artwork auctioned to pay debts. It changed hands multiple times and name (to the Calhoun Mansion) during the 1900s. John C. Calhoun died in 1850 and was never associated with the property on Meeting Street. Williams’ daughter, Sarah, was married to a grandson of Calhoun, but the mansion was actually renamed as a marketing ploy to draw more people to visit and stay when it was associated with a local, boutique hotel.

After many manifestations as a hotel and boarding house, the mansion began the long road to recovery in the late 20th century and was purchased by the current owner, Howard Stahl, in 2004. A lifelong collector of fine and decorative arts, Stahl has recreated the grandeur of the original mansion and returned it to its original name. He now shares this unique Gilded Age mansion—housing an unprecedented collection of artwork and antiquities similar to what Williams would have collected on his Grand Tours—to people who appreciate this special time and place in world history.