Nathaniel Russell House
This house, as well as the Aiken-Rhett House are owned by the Historic Charleston Foundation. The gardens that sprawl the left side of the house are really nice and can be walked through for free. As with any garden, Spring is best for flowering plants. The house itself was built in 1808 in the Neoclassical style. The history behind the family is pretty interesting since you begin to recognize a lot of names when the tour guide talks about the family tree. One of Nathaniel Russell's two daughters, Alicia, married Arthur Middleton of Bolton Plantation in 1809. Arthur Middleton was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Several generations lived in the house at one time or another and there are lots of neat intricacies in the family history. The house itself is nothing special. None of the current furnishings except one chair are original. The rest have been purchased through antiques dealers in an attempt to fit the era of the house. In some places, it is pretty obvious that the contents are not original which detracts from the tour. Also, the tour only lasted ten or fifteen minutes which seemed a little short for the money.
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