Fountain Fox Beattie House
The Fountain Fox Beattie House, located at 8 Bennett Street in Greenville, South Carolina, is a historic residence built around 1834 by textile merchant Fountain Fox Beattie for his bride, Emily Edgeworth Hamlin. It is recognized as the third-oldest extant structure in Greenville and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 .
Originally a modest two-story home, the Beattie House was expanded in the 1880s by Beattie’s son, Hamlin Beattie, who was a successful merchant and founder of the National Bank of Greenville. The enhancements included the addition of one-story wings and an elaborate Italianate-style porch with prominent columns and decorative brackets, reflecting the Italian Villa aesthetic popular during that era .
The Beattie House served as the residence for the Beattie family until 1946, when the city acquired the property for street widening. It was relocated to Beattie Place in 1948 and leased to the Greenville Woman’s Club, which used it as a meeting space from 1949 to 2014. In 1983, the house was moved again to its current location on Bennett Street to accommodate downtown development .
In 2017, the City of Greenville sold the Beattie House to Ryan and Jori Magg, who undertook its restoration to convert it back into a private residence. The couple agreed to a preservation easement to maintain the home’s historic integrity .