City plan · 1852 (plat 2 dated 26 August 1807)

The King and Beaufain corner, surveyed

City Engineer’s Plat Book, 1671-1951, Page 33

Held by City of Charleston, on permanent loan to The Charleston Archive at Charleston County Public Library. The Library of Congress serves the image; the sheet itself belongs to another institution, and permission to reproduce it comes from them.

The second plat on this page is the King and Beaufain corner — the corner this site’s photographers are placed from. It is headed Plan of that part of King Street North of Beaufain Street conveyed to the City Council of Charleston, dated 26 August 1807 and surveyed by Thomas Baker, and it was copied into the city engineer’s book in 1852.

What it gives is measured frontage: 93 feet, 47½, 33, 14, 13, 39, 52, 27, 27, lot by lot along King Street, with each owner named — Jno. Marshall, Ann Dawson and the rest. Frontages are what a street renumbering is calculated from, which makes a plat like this the right kind of evidence for turning a wartime address into a building.

It is not sufficient on its own. The names are of 1807, not 1861, and the plat records a strip taken for widening rather than the lots as the photographers knew them. Finishing that work means following the lots through the plat book and the conveyance record — title research, and honest to say so.

What is on the sheet

  • five plats on one page
  • the lots on King Street north of Beaufain Street, with their frontages in feet
  • the strip of King Street conveyed to the City Council for widening
  • the owners of each lot in 1807

The catalog’s own notes

Page 33 of the City Engineer's Plat Book with five plats. Plat 2 shows lots located near the intersection of Beaufain Street and King Street.

Bears on

George Smith Cook Charles J. Quinby James M. Osborn

Places

King Street

The record

Title, as catalogedCity Engineer’s Plat Book, 1671-1951, Page 33
Title used hereThe King and Beaufain corner, surveyed
MakerThomas Baker, City Surveyor (plat 2); the page also carries work by Louis J. Barbot, Joseph Purcell, Charles Parker and Robert K. Payne
Date, as cataloged1852 (plat 2 dated 26 August 1807)
KindCity plan
Mediummanuscript plats on one album page
CollectionCity Engineer’s Plat Book, 1671-1951
Call numberLCDL 296568; the plat cites U.7 p.205
Image served byCity Engineer’s Plat Book, 1671–1951
Held byCity of Charleston, on permanent loan to The Charleston Archive at Charleston County Public Library
RightsPublic domain
Rights statement, verbatimPublic domain. This City of Charleston has placed this collection on permanent loan with the Charleston County Public Library. For more information and reuse requirements contact The Charleston Archive at Charleston County Public Library, 68 Calhoun Street, Charleston, SC 29411.
Credit lineCity Engineer’s Plat Book, City of Charleston / The Charleston Archive at Charleston County Public Library, via the Lowcountry Digital Library
Catalog recordhttps://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/296568
Last verified2026-08-30

Read the sheet at the repository

Sources