South Carolina Department of Archives and History
National Register Properties in South Carolina

Dubose Heyward House, Charleston County (76 Church St., Charleston)
S1081771004101 S1081771004102 S1081771004103
Facade Right Oblique Right Elevation

The historical significance of the DuBose Heyward House rests primarily on his novel, Porgy, which inspired the famed folk opera Porgy and Bess. In this novel, Heyward chose for his setting the African American community of Charleston, and for his protagonist a crippled beggar whose struggle he treated with sensitivity and insight. The result was a dramatic story which has attained the status of a national legend. Dubose Heyward was born into an aristocratic family in Charleston on August 31, 1885. Heyward lived in the house from approximately 1919 to 1924. He began as a poet. In fact he was a co-founder of the Poetry Society of South Carolina in 1920. The house has been substantially altered and now serves as a wing of the house which it adjoins. The house is a two-and-one-half story building of three bays. The tile roof is hipped and has a single dormer on the street side. When the house was joined to a neighboring house as a wing, the entrance door was changed into a window. Listed in the National Register November 11, 1971; Designated a National Historic Landmark November 11, 1971.

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