The DeBruhl Marshall House 1820

A two story brick building constructed in 1820 by Jesse DeBruhl a low country planter and broker, now the DeBruhl Marshall House, was designed, it is believed by Robert Mills, the architect who is responsible for many famous buildings in South Carolina and throughout the nation. His most famous work was the Washington Monument. This house was for many years the home of the late Col. J.Q. Marshall grandson of Jesse DeBruhl, and subsequently his daughter Mrs. James Hammond. It was in the possession of Mrs. Rhodes as of 1973 who is credited with saving the house from destruction by developers. In later years the house was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places through the efforts of Norman DeBruhl and Josephine Parker DeBruhl and the late Senator Strom Thurmond. It is situated on the northeast corner of Laurel and Marion Streets and is one of the most imposing residences in the City of Columbia. The wide spacious piazza does not extend the entire length of the house as it did in many of the houses of that date, but it's massive Doric columns that reach to the gabled roof lend an air of dignity to this old brick mansion. An artistic fan shaped transom above the large front doorway furnishes ample light for the wide hall running the entire length of the house. Unlike the houses of that period, the staircase was hidden from view, being concealed in a small back room, known as the staircase room, but of late years this staircase has been removed and one is now to be seen in the rear end of the hall. The halls, both upstairs and down, are flanked on both sides by two big square rooms, with high ceilings and deeply recessed windows. It was in this home that the Confederate General Joseph E. Johnstone, made his headquarters in 1864-1865. When it was vacated by Johnstone, it seemed good to General Sherman's soldiers as fuel for their extensive conflagration and was about to be set in flames when Mrs. John S. Wiley, Jesse DeBruhls widow who was a very young and beautiful woman, appealed directly to General Sherman, whose headquarters were located directly behind the house on the next street. She begged that her home be spared, the soldiers heart softened and he ordered that guards be placed around the house. Thus we have left today one of the most artistic productions of the nineteenth century. The roof rafters still show char marks where Union soldiers tried to start a fire in the attic.



South Carolina Historical Society

Professor Yates Snowden, says that it was from the porches of the Moore House 1409 Gervais Street that he as a little boy watched the progress of Sherman's Army as it marched down Gervais Street in February, 1865. At the head of Main Street not a building was left on that street, everything was burned for one and a half miles and in a belt from a quarter to a half mile wide eighty four squares containing three hundred and sixty six acres and thirteen hundred houses were destroyed. General Sherman was seen riding leisurely through the streets smoking a cigar but he gave no orders and seemed to take little interest in what was going on.
Ref. Great Houses of SC Scribners rare book section.