Working location

George S. Cook, No. 265 King Street

265 King Street · Charleston, South Carolina

Approximate historical location. Placed by block, not by building. Two corners on King Street can be fixed in both the 1861 census and the 1884 Sanborn survey: the Siegling music house at the Beaufain corner (251–253 King in 1861, 247 in 1884) and Eibe H. Marjenhoff’s premises at the Liberty corner (333 King in 1861, still 333 in 1884, and he is listed at 2 Liberty Street as well). Between those two anchors the two numbering schemes differ by no more than about half a dozen doors. The point given here is that many doors along the block from the anchor corner, at a nominal thirty-foot frontage — the frontage the 1882 renumbering contract itself used. It is a position within a block, not a building. George S. Cook was the sixth door north of the Beaufain corner, in the long block between Beaufain and Liberty, on the west side.

This is Cook's address in the war: Ford's 1861 census lists George S. Cook as the occupant of No. 265 King Street, west side, Ward 4, in a house owned by Gen. John Schnierle. Charles J. Quinby is two doors away at 261, and Osborn & Durbec ten doors down at 245 — the whole Charleston photographic trade within a hundred yards of one another on the west side of King.

The block can now be named. Siegling’s music house held the Beaufain corner in 1861 and still held it in 1884, when the Sanborn surveyors numbered it 247 and wrote Music Mdse. across all three of its floors. Counting north from that corner, Cook’s gallery was the sixth door — the west side of King, in the long block between Beaufain and Liberty, near its southern end. Osborn & Durbec were three doors the other way, in the block below Beaufain.

Craig's Daguerreian Registry has Cook at 235 King Street in 1852, so either he moved or the street was renumbered between those two dates. His son George LaGrange Cook is later recorded at 265 King Street as well, after the war.

The numbering problem

Charleston's present street numbers date from the city-wide renumbering carried out under contract from 1882 and finished before the earthquake of 31 August 1886. A wartime number and a modern number of the same name are not the same address, and no conversion table survives, so this location is not matched to a modern parcel.

Who worked here

What is there now

Not established.

Where the address comes from

  • Frederick A. Ford, Census of the City of Charleston, South Carolina, for the Year 1861, Illustrated by Statistical Tables, Prepared under the Authority of the City Council (Charleston, 1861). The street lists give, for every house on every street, the number, the owner and the occupant. https://archive.org/details/censusofcityofch00char

Where the coordinate comes from

  • OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Used for the modern street intersections this section pins approximate locations to. https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
  • Frederick A. Ford, Census of the City of Charleston, South Carolina, for the Year 1861, Illustrated by Statistical Tables, Prepared under the Authority of the City Council (Charleston, 1861). The street lists give, for every house on every street, the number, the owner and the occupant. https://archive.org/details/censusofcityofch00char
  • Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/

Sources

  • Frederick A. Ford, Census of the City of Charleston, South Carolina, for the Year 1861, Illustrated by Statistical Tables, Prepared under the Authority of the City Council (Charleston, 1861). The street lists give, for every house on every street, the number, the owner and the occupant. https://archive.org/details/censusofcityofch00char
  • John S. Craig, Craig’s Daguerreian Registry (Torrington, Conn.: John S. Craig), consulted through Pioneer American Photographers.
  • “George Smith Cook (23 February 1819–27 November 1902),” Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia, Richmond. https://old.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Cook_George_Smith