No. 125 Pitt Street, c. 1895-1900 Mount Pleasant, SC No. 125 Pitt Street was most likely constructed c.1895-1900 as either a place of business for widow and seam- stress Eliza L. Owens (1842-1929), or as a small grocery. The building was originally constructed as three-bay wide, single-story rectangular structure. A single-bay, full-length addition was added to the south side as early as 1912, and a recessed, single-bay addition was added to the north side between 1939 and 1949. The infrastructure for the building’s original large storefront windows, front door with transom and small, square fenestration at the side elevations are intact. The large storefront windows and small, elevated side fenestration (which allowed for shelf space inside), as well as the high ceiling and exterior parapet, are representative of groceries at this time and survive at No. 121 Pitt Street, which was constructed between 1893 and 1912 as a grocery. (Figure 1) After 1959, the front windows and primary entry were diminished and side fenestration covered by an exterior brick veneer. By the 1980s, the building was renovated into a residential rental property but was converted back to commercial by the mid 1990s. Figure 1: (left) east (primary) elevation of No. 125 Pitt Street. A similar parapet is present on No. 121 Pitt Street; (center) interior looking northwest from primary entry. Original windows present within infrastructure; (right) original infrastructure of large storefront windows and entry transom intact, now in-filled with brick and plywood. Photos taken by BVL HPR. HISTORIC TIMELINE: 1883: Eliza L. Thomlinson Owens (1842-1929) bought the land now occupied by No. 123-125 Pitt Street (mea- suring 200’ x 52’) from Mary C. Thomlinson for $150.1 At the time of her purchase, the property was empty. Owens and Thomlinson were most likely related, as historic records confirm that Owens had a younger sister and sister-in-law named Mary Thomlinson.2 Owens, age 41 at the time of her purchase and a native of downtown Charleston, was recorded as resid- ing in Mount Pleasant as early as 1880 with her husband James B. Owens (1835-1895, a bookkeeper who, according to Columbia’s State, “surrendered with Lee at Appomattox” during the Civil War) and Ellen Marshall, their family cook. 3 Owens and her husband most likely pur- chased the property as an investment.4 By this time, Pitt Street between Morrison and Venning Streets had not yet been established as a main commercial thoroughfare. This is evidenced by an 1893 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, which depicts only two small stores in this area of Pitt Street and most of the land within today’s busi- ness district void of structures, including the land now occu- pied by No. 125 Pitt Street (Figure 2). 1895: At his death, James B. Owens was described as having “sev- Figure 2: 1893 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Mount Pleasant; the property of No. 123-125 Pitt Street is eral positions of prominence in local commercial circles,” highlighted. further suggesting that he and Owens purchased the empty property as an investment.5 No. 123-125 Pitt Street was most likely constructed by Owens after the death of her husband. 1900: The 1900 U.S. Federal Census recorded widow and dressmaker “Eliza L. Owens” as residing at and owning “156 Pitt Street,” which was listed a few doors below Venning Street.6 As the land now occupied by No. 123-125 Pitt Street was the only property Owens purchased in her lifetime, this confirms that a dwelling existed on Owen’s Pitt Street property by this time. Furthermore, many architectural elements of No. 123 Pitt Street indicate a late nineteenth, early twentieth century construction date. The dwelling’s size, symmetry, dual front gables, originally full-width, one-story porch and the porch’s thin columns are representative of the Folk Victorian architectural style, popular in the United States between the 1880s and 1900s. Owens is also listed with five other relatives, two of whom were recorded as seamstresses. As a widow and dressmaker, it is possible that Owens operated a dressmaking business, constructing a small wooden structure on her property adjacent to her dwelling on the main street to house her service. It is also possi- ble, however, that Owens constructed the small wooden building as a rental property for a local grocer, as both the size and fenestration are identical to that of No. 121 Pitt Street, denoted in 1912 as a vegetable 1 Charleston County Register of Deeds, Deed Book B20, Page 87, Charleston, SC. 2 “Joseph Thomlinson,” 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Charleston County Public Library, Charleston, SC; Joseph Thomlinson and Annie Lawrence were the parents of Eliza L. Thomlinson Owens; “Robert Thomlinson,” 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Charleston County Public Library, Charleston, SC; According to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Robert was Eliza’s brother. 3 “Mrs. John Moroso Died Last Night,” 1926 December 14, State, Columbia, SC. 4 1880 US Federal Census, Charleston County Public Library, Charleston, SC. 5 “Mr. Owens Dead,” 1895 December 12, Evening Post, Charleston, SC. 6 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Charleston County Public Library, Charleston, SC. store. Similar features include the small, rectangular footprint, large storefront windows and small square side fenestration now covered by the brick veneer. 1910: Owens, in her sixties, moved to Middle Street, most likely closing her business on Pitt Street.7 1912: The building first appears on a map of the area and is record- ed as a vacant one-story, wooden store with an east addition occupied by a cobbler (Figure 3). 1925: Owens sold No. 123-125 Pitt Street to Sarah Elma Coward McKnight (1901-1933) for $2,100.8 The property was one of five properties McKnight and her husband purchased that year, three of which were located in Old Village. No. 123- 125 Pitt Street, as well as the other Old Village properties, were purchased with money made from an illegal moonshine empire created by McKnight’s husband and brother-in-law. At the time of her purchase, McKnight was residing on a Figure 3: 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Mount farm in Moncks Corner with her husband James “Sammie” Pleasant; the property of No. 123-125 Pitt Street is Samuel McKnight (1891-1926).9 With his brother Glennie, highlighted. Sammie was a successful corn farmer, lumber merchant and nationally-known moonshiner during the Prohibition era. According to the Charleston Daily Mail at this time, “McKnights corn’ was known far and wide,” which led to Sammie’s frequent arrests throughout the 1920s.10 For example, in 1921 the United States government confiscated his motorboat “ELMA,” named for his wife, and arrested him for the illegal transportation of significant amounts of corn whiskey.11 Sam- mie and his brother have often been linked to Al Capone, as many secondary resources claim Capone’s illegal whiskey imports into Chicago were “McKnight corn” from Hell Hole Swamp.12 According to former mayor of Mount Pleasant Francis Ferguson Coleman in an interview with the Charleston Magazine in 1985, “in the 1920s and 30s, Mount Pleasant was strictly a farming community” with scattered grocery stores. It is likely that McKnight and her husband used real estate as a safe way to invest and secure their illegal funds, purchasing No. 123-125 Pitt Street strictly as rental property.13 It is also possible, however, that McKnight used No. 125 Pitt Street as a store, as many of his business partners in Hell Hole Swamp operated “mercantile stores” elsewhere.14 1926: Sammie was murdered during a gunfight in Moncks Corner.15 The News & Courier reported that the shoot- ing resulted from “a raid by prohibition officers…in the Hell-Hole Swamp section of Berkeley County” where ten stills, 10,000 gallons of beer and 1,800 gallons of corn whiskey “were destroyed.” The area quickly became known as “Bloody Berkeley” nationwide, as Sammie’s murder was one of many that year 7 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Charleston County Public Library, Charleston, SC. 8 Charleston County Register of Deeds, Deed Book U32, Page 510, Charleston, SC. 9 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Charleston County Public Library, Charleston, SC. 10 “Hell Hole - Moonshine and Sunlight,” 1930 February 16, Charleston Daily Mail, Charleston, SC; “Held on Whiskey Charge,” 1921 October 22, News & Courier, Charleston, SC. 11 “United States Marshal’s Sale,” 1921 June 4, Evening Post, Charleston, SC. 12 Parker, Katherine G., “Shining in the Tar Woods: An Examination of Illicit Liquor Distillation Sites in the Francis Marion National Forest,” unpublished paper, Society for Historical Archaeology Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, 2018 January, New Orleans, LA; Miles, Suzannah Smith, “Moonshine Over Hell Hole Swamp,” 2015 December, Charleston Magazine, Charleston, SC. 13 Coskrey, Bob, “The Village,” 1985 August 28, Charleston Magazine, Charleston, SC. 14 Miles, Suzannah Smith, “Moonshine Over Hell Hole Swamp,” 2015 December, Charleston Magazine, Charleston, SC. 15 “Two Killed, One Wounded in Gun Fight,” 1926 May 9, News & Courier, Charleston, SC. related to bootlegging in and around Moncks Corner.16 No. 125 Pitt Street continued to be used as a rental property. 1933: McKnight remarried to Aldrin Q. Murden and sold No. 123-125 Pitt Street to downtown resident Erna Louise Fischer Heffron (1895-1954) for $200.17 Heffron owned many pieces of land throughout Charleston and also most likely used No. 125 Pitt Street as a rental. During her ownership of the property, she resided on Rutledge Avenue downtown.18 1936: Heffron sold No. 123-125 Pitt Street to William Samuel Royall (1904-1990) and his sister Nan V.