The house at 68 Broad Street is typical of the post-Revolutionary single-house style commonly built in Charleston. But what is particularly unusual about the house is that the structure begun by Daniel Ravenel in 1796 is still owned by Daniel Ravenel. Although several families in Charleston still hold on to houses owned or built by their ancestors, the lot at number 68 bears the distinction of being in the same family the longest – 303 years since 1710 when it was purchased by Isaac Mazyck. Mazyck’s daughter Charlotte married planter Daniel Ravenel (the older one), and he built the current house on the lot after the fire of 1796 destroyed the home that was there before.
Ravenel’s plantation lands in St. John’s Parish included portions near the old Santee Canal that were distinguished for outstanding old-growth forests, and colonial-era advertisements show sales of tracts that produced a wealth of oak, hickory, ash and pine. It was the excellent wood from these ancient forests that built many of Charleston’s houses that still stand strong today, including the framing of the Ravenel house. Reading of the sales of land by Ravenel in the 1790’s is fitting, considering the current Daniel Ravenel name is among the most well-known in old Charleston real estate today.