| FOCUS ON THE FACULTY |
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| HISTORIAN/LIBRARIAN
AUTHORS DEFINITIVE BOOK ON CHARLESTON ARCHITECTURE |
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| By
Dana Scarborough |
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| Wait no longer! After
25 years of
research,
writing, and looking for a publisher, Gene Waddell's book, "Charleston
Architecture
1670-1860," is printed, bound, and available. Waddell’s book conveys his enthusiasm and passion for architecture in Charleston. The book emphasizes eight well documented buildings and compares hundreds of other buildings to these. It is two volumes; the first volume is made up of more than 300 pages of strictly text, and the second volume is made up of over 600 pages of illustrations, maps, and drawings. Together they are exceptional because they focus on content, illustrations, and themes that have never been introduced in a book preceding its publication. According to Waddell, his book begins in 1670, the year Charleston was officially founded, and ends in 1860 because the styles of houses would begin to change dramatically as the Civil War approached. A South Carolina native, Waddell was born in Sumter and raised in Florence. He moved to Charleston to attend the College of Charleston where he would earn degrees in both English and fine arts. He would go on to earn a master's degree in architectural history at UCLA. His past positions include director of the Florence Museum and director of the South Carolina Historical Society. Today at the College of Charleston, he is a special collections librarian and archivist and an art history adjunct faculty member. Waddell says he was first fascinated by the architecture in Charleston because the majority of its early architecture is still in tact. "Other cities, like New York, have lost their early architecture," explained Waddell. One of his College of Charleston professors, Samuel Gaillard Stoney, first sparked his interest in the history of Charleston. Stoney had written text for Charleston plantation books, which gave Waddell the incentive to publish his own work. A challenge motivates Waddell. It was stimulating for him to find a glitch or a gap in research while he was preparing his book. “I find any historical problem intriguing,” said Waddell. He found the answers to his questions in his principle source of documentation, the buildings themselves. He also conducted research in archives worldwide. The result of his thorough research is a comprehensive book that contains in-depth information, and an original study. Elise Pinckney, the editor of the S.C. Historical Magazine while Waddell was the director of the S.C. Historical Society, adds, "He's a wonderful researcher, he brought a new light to the way we look at Charleston's architecture. His book gives the community a more serious appreciation for Charleston architecture." Waddell's research was so extensive that he “produced a book that was repeatedly turned down by publishers as too expensive to publish,” according to his essay entitled “How Not to Write an Architecture Book.” After nine years of looking for a publisher, Wyrick and Company published his book in December 2003. After Waddell’s close scrutiny of historic houses, he concluded that architects today are not doing a good job renovating buildings because they are not well trained. “Architects today are entirely different from architects of the past...they modernize houses because they don’t do research from the past. Most modern buildings are like cars, they wear out,” said Waddell. However, Waddell's intense research has made "Charleston Architecture 1670-1860" a standard that will be hard for other writers to reach. Waddell has captivated the minds of many. “This book is a magnificent piece of work. It represents an accumulation of a vast store of knowledge,” said Dr. Malcolm Clark, the former chairman of C of C's history department. Pinckney adds, "His approach was very scholarly, the analysis he puts into it is fine, and he covers a great many fields. His book is not to be compared to other books on Charleston." Gene Waddell left many people waiting for a final publication, but "Charleston Architecture 1670-1860" is in stores now. For more information about Professor Waddell, please see his website at: http://www.cofc.edu/~waddelle/ ###
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 Gene
Waddell
Library Archivist/Historian (photo courtesy Wilson Baker)  "Charleston Architecture 1670-1860" by Gene Waddell is in bookstores now |
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