42 St. Philip Street (left) and 40 St. Philip Street (right), circa 1972

42 St. Philip Street (left) and 40 St. Philip Street (right), circa 1972
These matching houses were built in 1894. The property had held several small tenement buildings, owned since 1869 by William Rieppe, whose tenants were mostly African-American. Those renters were displaced in 1894 when Rieppe’s daughter Annie and her husband George H. Mehrtens built these houses. In 1931 Mrs. Mehrtens gave these two properties to her son George H.L. Mehrtens, who was already living at 40 St. Philip with his wife, Vera. They retained 42 St. Philip as a rental house with white tenants. A glimpse of the piazza of 44 St. Philip is visible in the left of the photo. This structure, known as the McCrady House, has since been moved, near to where the 40 St. Philip house stands in this photo. By the mid-1970s, 42 and 40 St. Philip had been demolished, and the McCrady House moved to a site between 58 George Street and the empty lot where 40 St. Philip had stood. Courtesy of City of Charleston Department of Planning, Preservation, and Sustainability.
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