3 Orange St.

Alexander Petrie House brings together pre-revolutionary, modern day charm

Leroy Burnell
The Post and Courier

The exterior of 3 Orange St highlights its Charleston single-home appearance. It has a 1/2 acre lot with a sizable yard and gardens. The house is for sale for $3,795,000.

Leroy Burnell
The Post and Courier

A newer, first level section of 3 Orange St. has an "up-to-the-minute" kitchen with island counter opening into a sitting room. That room, in turn, leads to a screen porch.

Leroy Burnell
The Post and Courier

The master bedroom in the Alexander Petrie House, at 3 Orange St., combines modern features such as a new glassed-in shower with traditional touches such as hardwood floors and a porcelain "soaking tub."

Leroy Burnell
The Post and Courier

This brick hearth is original, dating to 1767. Remodeling experts fit the modern kitchen cabinets around the 18th century chimney.

Homes with a history are a dime a dozen — OK, closer to 300 million dimes a dozen — in downtown Charleston. After all, the city’s roots date back more than three centuries. The 3 Orange Street property, though, has a rare double: old and new tales.

Alexander Petrie, the city’s leading silversmith, constructed the home about 241 years ago for his wife Elizabeth out of land that had been set aside as a pleasure garden used for concerts. By contrast, its current owner is a self-made millionaire who had a brush with celebrity as a youth.

Known to preservationists as the Alexander Petrie House, the early Georgian style dwelling is on an aptly named lane that connects Broad and Tradd streets a block east of Legare.

“The street was an orange grove,” says Joanie Lucas, Realtor with Historic Charleston Properties who is listing the home. Petrie was the first to subdivide the tropical fruit farm. He built a house on one parcel sometime around 1767.

The three story, 4,955 square foot house is on the market for $3,795,000. The wood and stucco sided home is designed in typical Charleston single fashion, with its side facing Orange Street and the house stretching into the lot, anchored by first and second floor piazzas. With the narrow section up front, the layout makes it possible to overlook the home’s grandeur from the street. “It’s very deceiving,” Lucas says.

Dennis F. Holt owns the five-bedroom house, as well as another home on Orange where he lives, and visits Charleston regularly from residences in Southern California and New York. Holt, who is in his early 70s, is founder and chairman of Patriot Communications advertising and media company. It is a spinoff of his original venture Western International Media, which he formed in 1970. Western International grew to 39 offices and more than $12.5 billion in billings worldwide before he sold the venture in 1994.

Holt, a California native, also has another small claim to fame, as a young teenager he played a character in a recurring role on the 1950s TV staple Ozzie and Harriett.

In its marketing materials, Historic Charleston Properties describes 3 Orange as a “brilliant mix of the old with the new.” Says Lucas, “People want the old, they want the new.” The 18th century portion of the house, with original chimney, floors and a brick hearth, has been maintained for formal entertaining. A newer, but still antique, addition to the house is the primary living space today.

Lucas describes the restored and recently modernized addition this way, “A spacious living room opening onto a rear piazza spilling out into the garden, a family dining area, a study with flat screen, up to the minute kitchen, (climate controlled) wine cellar, a private master bedroom wing and sumptuous bath, plenty of closet and storage space.”

At the same time, 3 Orange keeps its 18th century feel throughout. The hearth blends into with granite countertops and high-end appliances in the open gourmet kitchen. The second floor master bedroom, which has a full room for a closet, also connects to the oversized bath with 21st century features such as a glassed-in shower and retro touches such as a cast iron porcelain soaking tub.

The garden, meanwhile, is not just your everyday collection of flowers and shrubbery. The designer was Loutrell Briggs, who carved out many of the classic horticultural yards in downtown Charleston in pre-World War II times. The house has a 1/2 acre lot and is on comparatively high ground for downtown.

“The history and (house) size is important,” Lucas says. But the top perk about 3 Orange “truly is the (comfortable) living.”

To take a look at 3 Orange, travel on Broad Street and turn south onto Legare (Orange is one way). Follow Legare for a block and turn left on Tradd. Continue a block, and turn left on Orange. The house is on the left.

Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542 or jparker@postandcourier.com

Agent: Joanie Lucas

Office: Historic Charleston Properties

Phone: (843) 853-3000

Philosophy: “I’m a native Charlestonian with 27 years’ experience in the high-end historic district. I know the recession-proof properties that always hold their value. Let me take you beyond the architecture. My knowledge and experience can’t be beat.”

www.historicrealestate.com