Spring Dinner at the William Gibbes House

WHEN THE WEALTHY MERCHANT planter Gibbes began building his Georgian mansion on the Ashley River in 1772, it overlooked his huge, thriving wharf to the south and his fancy parterred gardens to the rear. Late in the eighteenth century he sold the house to Sarah Moore Smith, who added putty ornaments to mantels and door surrounds and an unusual wrought iron balustrade to the staircase. Mrs. Smith also added the majestic double marble exterior staircase that now looks not over the river, but onto a lovely city street, the marshes having been filled in over the past two hundred years to make way for downtown property.