Handsome Properties announced the listing of 20 South Battery Street, the historic Stevens-Lathers House, offered at $16.5 million.
Located along Charleston’s iconic Battery overlooking White Point Garden and Charleston Harbor, the property is one of the city’s most distinguished historic residences and has played a remarkable role in Charleston’s story for nearly two centuries. Built in 1843 by shipping merchant Samuel N. Stevens, the home reflected the grandeur of antebellum Charleston.
In 1870, Colonel Richard Lathers acquired the property and commissioned architect John Henry Devereux to transform the residence, giving it its distinctive Second Empire character and grand ballroom. Under Lathers, the home became a notable gathering place for politicians, military figures, writers, businessmen, and members of Charleston society.
The property later became part of Charleston’s preservation movement. In 1920, Nell McColl Pringle and Susan Pringle Frost gathered preservation-minded citizens in the home’s drawing room to discuss the future of Charleston’s historic architecture. That meeting helped lead to the founding of the Preservation Society of Charleston, which became instrumental in protecting the city’s historic character.
“20 South Battery is an exceptionally rare offering because of the combination of its history, architecture, scale and location. There are beautiful historic homes in Charleston, but very few have played such a meaningful role in the story of the city and have been so thoughtfully restored,” said Deborah C. Fisher, Broker-in-Charge of Handsome Properties.
The home’s architectural significance extends throughout its interior and exterior, with surviving Neoclassical elements including its symmetrical design, stone window lintels, balustraded parapet, pilasters, tracery fanlight, fluted decorative columns, elliptical stair, curved mahogany rail, and scrolled Empire-style newel post. More than a century after its construction, The News & Courier described the home’s original scale, mass, and floor plan as one of the most “authentic representations of that last period of prosperity before the war.”
