Denmark Vesey House

Although named a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and commonly known as the Denmark Vesey House, the home today located at 56 Bull Street in Charleston, South Carolina is almost certainly not the house once inhabited by black abolitionist Denmark Vesey. Vesey's rented home, owned first by attorney George Cross and later by white carpenter Benjamin Ireland, listed as 20 Bull Street under the city's former numbering system, is now evidently gone. A nearby home, most likely built in the 1830s or 1840s and currently numbered 56 Bull Street, was thought in 1976 to have been the home of Denmark Vesey. But in 1980, state archivist Wylma Wates found evidence to suggest Vesey's rented house was four or five houses east of the so-called "Vesey house. Architectural historian Edward Turberg confirmed that the house in question is not only in the wrong place but was "constructed after 1830 and before 1850." Since Vesey was hanged in 1822, he died roughly ten years before the house was built. Despite these findings, the house today remains a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

References

External links

Denmark Vesey House, Charleston County (56 Bull St., Charleston), with 4 photos, at South Carolina Department of Archives and History