Fountain Fox Beattie House

Fountain Fox Beattie House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Greenville Woman's Club
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Location	8 Bennett Street, Greenville, South Carolina
Coordinates	34°51′25″N 82°23′22″W / 34.85694°N 82.38944°W / 34.85694; -82.38944Coordinates: 34°51′25″N 82°23′22″W / 34.85694°N 82.38944°W / 34.85694; -82.38944
Area	less than one acre
Built	1834
Architectural style	Italianate, Italian Villa
NRHP Reference #	74001859[1]
Added to NRHP	October 9, 1974

The Fountain Fox Beattie House, the home of Greenville Woman's Club from 1950 to 2014, is a historic house in Greenville, South Carolina.^[2][3] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.^[1]

History

The house was built c. 1834 on East North Street by merchant and banker Fountain Fox Beattie for his bride, Emily Edgeworth. Originally the house had a simple design, two rooms on each floor with a separate kitchen behind the house. Beattie prospered even during Reconstruction, and generations of his family continued to live into the house well into the 20th century. Probably in the 1880s, the Beatties added one-story wings and an elaborately columned porch with Italianate brackets. After the death of Mrs. John Beattie in 1938, the family rented out the house. In 1946, when the house stood in the way of street widening and was slated for demolition, Greenville club women asked the city to buy and preserve the house as their meeting place. The house was moved to a new street, named Beattie Place, and rented to the Woman's Club for a dollar a year. When Beattie Place also became a busy thoroughfare, the house was moved once again in 1983 to a site off Bennett Street.^[4][5]

In 2014, citing declining membership, the Greenville Woman's Club disbanded, and ownership of the historic house reverted to the city of Greenville.^[6] The city negotiated with Black Knight International, a development group owned by Marc Player, son of professional golfer Gary Player, which planned to repurpose the building into office space; but Black Knight eventually declined to buy the house.^[7]

Architecture

The two-story structure has one-story wings. The roof on the central portion is flat except for a small central gable. The wings have a flat, balustraded roof. There is a one-story piazza supported by six pairs of columns. These form three large and two smaller arches. The main entrance is a set of double doors.^[1]

References

U.S. National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Topics	Contributing property Keeper of the Register Historic district History of the National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Property types
Lists by county	Abbeville Aiken Allendale Anderson Bamberg Barnwell Beaufort Berkeley Calhoun Charleston Cherokee Chester Chesterfield Clarendon Colleton Darlington Dillon Dorchester Edgefield Fairfield Florence Georgetown Greenville Greenwood Hampton Horry Jasper Kershaw Lancaster Laurens Lee Lexington Marion Marlboro McCormick Newberry Oconee Orangeburg Pickens Richland Saluda Spartanburg Sumter Union Williamsburg York
Lists by city	Charleston Columbia Greenville North Charleston Rock Hill
Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property