WEST ASHLEY, S.C. (WCBD) – A historic stone house in West Ashley is no longer at risk of being demolished.
On Monday, Charleston’s Design Review Board denied a request to tear down the former home located at 1731 Savannah Highway.
West Ashley historian and author, Donna Jacobs, said the Stone House was built by the in laws of Randolph Tucker Harrison Jr. His family owned the land that would later become Stono Park.
The home was built from stone imported from Hendersonville, North Carolina.
“It is an original stone house. So, you don’t have those many left here nowadays,” said Johns Island Resident Forrest Tucker.
The house is believed to have been built sometime in the 1930s or 40s. According to Charleston officials, the property has been used for commercial purposes in the last few decades.
“This is one of those situations, unfortunately, where you have a very unique structure that was built at a different time and is now in a place where place significant redevelopment has already occurred, and future redevelopment is going to continue to impact the viability for this structure to be useful a residence or even as it’s been most recently used for, as an office,” said Robert Summerfield, the City of Charleston’s Director of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability.
West Ashley native Zach Liollio and several of his neighbors spoke out against the proposed demo.
“West Ashley needs to have more historic preservation, especially when it comes to like the peninsula and everything, we’ve always taken a back seat. That style home is so indicative of Charleston, especially the pre-war era,” Liollio.
A neighboring sister home was demolished a few years back.