Dr. David Ramsay House

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Description:

Black and white photograph of the south (front) elevation of the Dr. David Ramsay House located at 92 Broad Street.

Built c.1740 by silversmith, Solomon Legar? or, possibly by his daughter Mary and her husband, Thomas Ellis. It was originally constructed as a two story asymetrical build with a second floor balcony. A third floor and garret along with a hip roof and a double-tiered front portico was added c.1816-1820. After serving as an army surgeon during the Revolutionary War, Dr. David Ramsay and his third wife, Martha Laurens, bought the house in 1783 where he ran his medical practice from the ground floor. He is not only credited with bringing the vaccination process, especially for smallpox, to South Carolina, he is also credited with writing the first history of South Carolina. Dr. Ramsay died in 1815 when he was shot by a patient he had diagnosed as insane. A third level was added to the portico sometime after 1920 but has since been removed. Much of the original woodwork including several fully paneled rooms remain in the house.

Photographer Charles N. Bayless, funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, photographed and recorded the Carolina Lowcountry between 1970 and 1988. The South Carolina Project took place between 1977 and 1979.