68 Cannon Street - The Charlestonian

THE SIRES-RIGGS HOUSE
Built ca. 1855

Bookkeeper Peter Sires and his wife Martha most likely built the dwelling shortly after they purchased the property. Sires was part of a wealthy French family that fled to Charleston during the Haitian Revolution in the 1790s. The dwelling resembles 156, 158, and 160 Spring Street, which were built by Peter’s brother and carpenter Francis Sires, and is an exact copy of 60 Cannon Street, also built in the 1850s.

The two-and-one-half story frame dwelling contains a central-hall floor plan and Greek Revival-inspired design. The exterior of the main structure has remained largely unchanged with the exception of a modern addition that spans the rear. The building’s full-width double piazza is representative of the Greek Revival architectural style and was designed to capture the breeze from a mill pond that formerly occupied the south side of Cannon Street. An original rear kitchen house was demolished following World War II.

In 1861, the dwelling was occupied by Confederate ship captain Shirley C. Turner. Colonel Robert DeTreville, signer of the Ordinance of Secession, operated a law firm on the first floor by 1864 while the family of property owner and wood factor Thomas W. Riggs lived upstairs. Riggs likely supplied the materials for Charleston’s first street railway system, which was spearheaded by his brother John S. Riggs in 1865. In 1900, nearly thirty people rented the main dwelling and rear kitchen house, including eleven black residents who served as bricklayers, chauffeurs and domestic servants. In the 1930s, the property was occupied by the family of Haynes L. Baldwin, who used the property for his wholesale poultry business and the storage of hens and chickens. A laundromat occupied the ground floor as early as the 1940s.