The History of the Aiken-Rhett House
The house and its surviving furnishings offer a compelling portrait of urban life in antebellum Charleston.
Vastly expanded by Governor and Mrs. William Aiken, Jr. in the 1830s and again in the 1850s, the house and its outbuildings include a kitchen, laundry, carriage block and the original quarters for the enslaved people. The house and its surviving furnishings offer a compelling portrait of urban life in antebellum Charleston, as well as a politician, industrialist, planter and enslaver. The house spent 142 years in the Aiken family's hands before being sold to The Charleston Museum and opened as a house museum in 1975.
In 1995, Historic Charleston Foundation assumed ownership of the property and adopted a preserved “as-found” preservation approach, meaning the structure and contents are left in an “as-found” state, including furniture, architecture and finishes that have not been altered since the mid 19th century. The only restored room in the house, the Art Gallery, showcases paintings and sculptures the Aiken family acquired on their European Grand Tour.
While many dependency buildings in Charleston have been demolished or adapted, the Aiken-Rhett House’s kitchen, laundry and quarters – with their original paint, floors and fixtures – survive virtually untouched since the 1850s, allowing visitors the unique chance to better comprehend the every-day realities of the enslaved Africans who lived on-site, maintained the household and catered to the needs of the Aiken family and their guests.
