MYSTERY PHOTO:  Wow, what a Lowcountry house

Now a private residence, this house has particular significance, according to a reader who submitted the picture.  Two-part mystery this week: Where is the house and what is its significance. Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our previous Mystery Photo

Our March 1 mystery, “Look for a telling clue for this mystery” was the perfect pre-St. Patrick’s Day photo.  It showed Hibernian Hall on Meeting Street in Charleston (the harp with the green background was the clue).

Congratulations to 14l sleuths who correctly identified the building:  Judy Hines, Jim Lundy, Beth McGuire and Addison Ingle, all of Charleston; Charles Davis of Aiken; Patricia Wolman and David Lupo, both of Mount Pleasant; Gwen Strickland of Marion; Don Clark of Hartsville; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; Steve Willis of Lancaster; Jay Altman of Columbia; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Charles Boyd of Hanahan;

Lupo provide information from what the National Park Service wrote about the building when it became a National Historic Site in 1973:  “Completed in 1840, this is the only extant building associated with the Democratic Convention of 1860, one of the most critical political assemblies in the history of the United States. At Charleston, the fate of the old party system was sealed: The Democratic Party was shattered and Republican victory assured in the fall. Hibernian Hall served as headquarters for the faction supporting Stephen A. Douglas, the pivotal personality of the convention.”

Graf added, according to revolvy.com, “the first floor [in 1860] was used as a meeting space, and the second floor as living quarters for the delegates, who slept on hundreds of cots set up for the occasion. No one Democratic candidate could garner sufficient support. The party’s divisiveness contributed to the election of the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln.”

Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)  Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission.  Thanks.