Robert William Roper House

The Robert William Roper House is a historic house at 9 East Battery in Charleston, South Carolina. It was built on land purchased by Robert W. Roper, a prominent cotton planter, in May 1838. The house is an outstanding example of early 19th Century Greek Revival architecture, built on a monumental scale. Although there are now two houses between the Roper House and White Point Garden to the south, at the time of its construction nothing stood between the house and the harbor beyond. "It is said that Mr. Roper intended his showcase home to be the first residence seen by visitors approaching Charleston from the sea." The authors of the nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places (1973) speculated that Edward B. White was the architect, although no evidence is given in support of this. Others, including Jonathan H. Poston and the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, have suggested Charles Friedrich Reichardt, a highly regarded Prussian architect, who was working in Charleston at the time on the new Charleston Hotel [now], built in the Greek Revival style. The house was purchased in 1929 by Solomon Guggenheim of New York. It was acquired in 1968 by Richard Jenrette, who restored it, completing in the early 1980s what Jonathan H. Poston calls "one of America's most notable restorations of a Greek Revival house." The Roper House was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.