Capers-Motte House

When photographerd for the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1940, the house still had a piazza on the south side. The piazza, which was not an original feature of the house, was later removed.

The Capers-Motte House is a pre-Revolutionary house at 69 Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina. The house was likely built before 1745 by Richard Capers. Later, the house was the home of Colonel Jacob Motte, who served as the treasurer of the colony for 27 years. In 1778, Colonel James Parsons occupied the house; he was a member of the Continental Congress and had been offered the vice-presidency of South Carolina before the formation of the United States. From 1800 to 1811, O'Brien Smith, a member of Congress, owned the house. Later it was owned by his sister Honora Smith Pyne. Mrs. William Mason Smith bought the house in 1869, and her granddaughter, American artist Miss Alice Ravenel Huger Smith lived in the house in the 20th century. The house was restored to its Georgian and Adam period appearance, with later changes removed, when it was bought by Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Cecil in 1969.

The house follows a traditional double-house format with four principal rooms on each floor with a stair hall centrally located. An unusual feature is that the third floor windows are the same height as those on the first two floors; the expected design would have had smaller windows on the third floor.