Williams Mansion

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The Williams Mansion, formerly known as the Calhoun Mansion, is a large Victorian house at 16 Meeting St., Charleston, South Carolina. It was built for businessman George W. Williams in 1875–76, with designs by W.P. Russell and Devereux Brothers as contractors. The cornerstone was laid on April 26, 1875. The 24,000-square-foot home has about 30 main rooms, a 50-by-14-foot main hall, and a ballroom with a 45-foot ceiling.

When Williams died in 1903, the house was inherited by his son-in-law, Patrick Calhoun, a grandson of John C. Calhoun, which is how it came to be known as the Calhoun Mansion. It opened as a hotel in 1914. In 1932, the rear portion facing Church Street was subdivided, and the original stables and servants’ quarters became the Louis Gourd House.

Attorney Gedney Howe and his wife Patricia bought the property in 1976 and restored it. Howe attempted to sell it in 2000 and again in 2004, when a private sale was arranged to lawyer and preservationist Howard H. Stahl. The mansion now houses Stahl’s collection of Gilded Age artifacts.

In 2020, the house’s name was officially changed back to Williams Mansion to avoid implying that John C. Calhoun lived there, a change tied to the nearby Calhoun monument’s removal. The mansion has appeared on screen, including ABC’s North and South as the Hazards’ mansion, and in Gunfight at Branson Creek; its interiors were used for scenes in The Notebook.