home was recently listed on the market for $2,295,000. 🔨 While the construction remains a mystery, as the original documents seemed to have vanished, the house was owned by Charles Cotesworth Pickney in 1779. 🏠 Features a drawing room + library on the second floor. house was recently listed on the market for $5,599.000 + featured in Southern Living Magazine. playwright John McGowan in 1941, who renovated the home to give it the characteristics it has today. 🏠 Sold to Nathaniel Russell in 1793, then went through a series of owners until Susan Pringle Frost bought the home in 1920.

🔨 Originally built in 1778, but destroyed in a fire that same year. 🏠 The house has a unique side garden + outbuildings (which were used as slave quarters). 🏠 Unlike the rest of Rainbow Row, this house still has most of its original stucco finish. It was then purchased by Susan Pringle Frost in 1920. It was later rebuilt in 1792 by a Scottish Merchant, named– you guessed it– James Gordon. 🔨 Built in 1792, but was completely destroyed by a fire in 1778. 🏠 Has only seen minor restorations throughout the years. 💙 Number 79-81– A two-part building, which begins Rainbow Row Here is a little background on the abodes that make up Rainbow Row. The real reason behind the vibrant colors is a combination of the Legge’s choice to paint their house pink, their neighbors following suite to improve aesthetics, + as a way to keep the houses cool during the summer. But as far as history can tell– the stories that say the houses were painted brightly to point drunken sailors in the right direction, or those that state merchants used the colors to identify goods– are just that– stories. It was this action that helped the stretch of homes earn the moniker “Rainbow Row.”Īs it happens with most historic landmarks, Rainbow Row comes with numerous anecdotes about the original reason for the colors. Throughout the late 1930s + 1940s, others in the neighborhood decided to copy their style– also painting their abodes in bold, Caribbean colors as a way to improve the aesthetics + keep the houses cooler during the warmer months. As they started renovating, they chose to paint the exterior of the houses in a bright, pastel pink– as a homage to the city’s Colonial Caribbean heritage roots. That same year, Judge Lionel Legge + his wife Dorothy Porcher Legge purchased a section of the homes, from 99-101 East Bay Street. A decade later, in 1931, Charleston adopted the country’s first Historical Zoning Ordinance– which helped citizens see the value of maintaining + protecting historical homes.

99 101 east bay street