Facade	Left Oblique	Left Elevation	Rear Elevation	Interior Staircase

(Ashley Hall School) Constructed ca. 1816, Ashley Hall was once the home of wealthy Charleston merchants. Distinctive architecturally, it has served since 1909 as a preparatory school for girls. James Nicholson owned the property from 1829 to 1838. In 1838 James Pringle bought the house. Pringle was a prominent Unionist during the Nullification controversy and a member of the state legislature from 1808 to 1818. At the time he bought the house, he was the collector of customs for the Port of Charleston. Pringle sold the house to George A. Trenholm in 1845. Trenholm was a wealthy merchant and financier who became Secretary of the Confederate Treasury in 1864. The Classical Revival building was constructed of stuccoed brick painted white and is two stories over a high basement with rusticated masonry. The portico is supported by four giant-order unfluted Ionic columns with Renaissance capitals in Palladian stance upon balustraded pedestals. The pediment is denticulated and has in it triptych Gothic windows. The basement’s front elevation has a central segmented arch flanked to either side by a semicircular arch. Originally open, the arches have been glazed. The portico façade is a deeply-convex apse with second story balconies and wrought iron railings. The water table is sandstone. After decades of use as a private residence, Mary Vardrine McBee found Ashley Hall in 1909, a preparatory school for girls. Listed in the National Register August 30, 1974.

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