Stay Where You Celebrate

A Downtown Charleston Historic Mansion

Transformed into a Luxury Event Space with 6 On-Site Bedrooms

What sets the Josiah Smith Tennent House apart is the experience:

you and your closest family and friends stay on site in our six beautifully appointed bedrooms, each with en suite bathrooms, allowing your celebration to extend beyond the events themselves.

The Josiah Smith Tennent House is not just a venue – it’s your private Charleston mansion with professionally designed event spaces for the entire weekend. With its multiple event spaces, you can host bespoke gatherings such as:

Welcome Party in the courtyard, speakeasy, garden room, & piazza
Exchanging vows in the ballroom. No backup rain plan needed.
Hosting a seated dinner or cocktail reception in the ballroom & piazza. No backup rain plan needed.
Lively reception in the courtyard
Dedicated, spacious bride and groom get-ready spaces
Cocktails at golden hour on the piazzas with stunning sunset reflections of the Ravenel Bridge over Charleston Harbor
Hosting a Farewell Brunch on Sunday in the garden room before departing as newlyweds

No transportation logistics. No venue hopping. No compromises. Just time together.

When you reserve the Josiah Smith Tennent house, the property is entirely yours – no shared spaces, no overlapping events, no interruptions.

It is a rare blend of private residence and grand event space that elevates the entire experience.

Our Story

The Josiah Smith Tennent House was the last great antebellum mansion built in Charleston, South Carolina before the Civil War.

Situated near the base of the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge and adjacent to the popular mixed-use Cigar Factory development, it stands out as a landmark against the skyline and a "gateway" to the City of Charleston.

The house was built by Josiah Smith Tennent and his wife, Mary, in 1859 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. With its generous size of 10,000 square feet spread over four stories, lofty ceilings, and many windows allowing for cross ventilation, the house provided a handsome setting for comfortable, spacious family living. However, despite its size, design, and careful craftsmanship, the house seemed to show a battening down before the storm. If time had permitted, more embellishment might have followed but, because of the exigencies of war, the house never received the rich, elegant treatment of the interiors characteristic of Charleston houses of that period.

During the Civil War, the nearby hospital on Mary Street burned. In 1864, the Josiah Smith Tennent house served as an asylum for displaced patients and became a Confederate hospital called Soldiers' Relief Home. It survived the 1886 earthquake but was severely damaged by multiple uses and years of virtual abandonment.

The Josiah Smith Tennent House is now owned by local Charleston attorneys Todd Manley and Meredith Hastings Manley. Preservation-minded plans are underway for the mansion's transformation into a luxury event venue with six on-site bedrooms, a ballroom, two bars, a movie theater, a groom's lounge, a bridal area, a grand chef's kitchen and a separate catering kitchen, a 63-foot-long garden room with black and white European tile flooring, a commercial elevator servicing all four floors, and new mechanical systems throughout. Philip Simmons gates and ironwork and wide wrap-around piazzas showcase the large courtyard and Charleston harbor.