A spring trip to the Aiken-Rhett House

Aiken-Rhett House, Charleston, SC

If you're planning a springtime trip to Charleston to see the gardens, you may want to visit the Aiken-Rhett House Museum (48 Elizabeth Street). Built around 1820, it was bought by William Aiken, Sr. in 1827 and remained in the family until 1975 when it was sold to The Charleston Museum.

Interior of the Aiken-Rhett House

William Aiken, Jr. (S.C. governor, 1844-1846) acquired property around Flat Rock's Highland Lake:

William Aiken, Jr. died at his summer home in Flat Rock, North Carolina, in 1887. He left his property to his wife and daughter. Harriet Lowndes Aiken [his wife] continued to live in the [Charleston] house until her death in 1892. Her daughter, Henrietta, and son-in-law, Major A.B. Rhett (CSA), raised their four sons and one daughter in the house. Upon Henrietta’s death, the house was divided between her children and their heirs. Two sons, I’On Rhett and Andrew Burnet Rhett, Jr. continued to live in the house until the mid twentieth century. . .

Aiken's daughter, Henrietta, was given the Flat Rock property in 1873 and it remained in the family until the 1910s.

Harriet Lowndes Aiken, wife of Gov. William Aiken