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The Basement
The warming kitchen, located in the basement of the house, is part of the service area primarily used by enslaved African Americans.
Slaves were highly trained in all skills necessary to running a property of this magnitude. There were laundresses, seamstresses,
cooks, maids, footmen, gardeners, and carriage drivers. The number of slaves who worked on this property varied from 10 to 20. In
1846, seven enslaved adults and their six children lived at the Aiken-Rhett House, Ann Gregs and Dorcas Richardson among them. One
of the two women may have served as the Aikens' cook.
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The slaves living on this property were a small fraction of the almost 800 owned by the Aiken family.
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Most cooking took place in a dependency building behind the main house. Slaves used the warming kitchen located in the raised basement
to garnish and ready foods for presentation in the formal dining room directly above them. The "back stairs" just outside the room
allowed access to the dining room.
Today the warming kitchen is furnished similarly to how it would have been during the antebellum period, with wire-covered pie safes,
storage cabinets and plate warmers.
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LOCATION
48 Elizabeth Street, two blocks from the Charleston Visitor Center.
Click the map above for Driving Directions.
RESTORATION UPDATES
2008 MUSEUM SPONSOR
HOURS OF OPERATION
Monday - Saturday : 10 a.m. - 5 p.m
Sunday : 2 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Last tour begins at 4:15 p.m.
Features the only "audio tour" in Charleston
PURCHASE TICKETS
$10 or visit both the Aiken-Rhett House and the Nathaniel Russell House for $16. Tickets may be purchased at either site.
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
GIRL SCOUT OPPORTUNITIES
Learn more about earning credits toward your Local Lore Patch.
INFORMATION
Phone: (843) 723-1159
Email: vperry@historiccharleston.org
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