You are here

West Virginia » Capital Center and South Central West Virginia » Charleston » West Charleston » Breezemont (Watts House)

Breezemont (Watts House)

-A A +A
Watts House
1905, 1941. 1988, Paul D. Marshall and Associates. 915 Breezemont Dr.
  • Breezemont (Watts House) (Michelle Krone)

This rock-faced ashlar mansion stands on a hill overlooking west Charleston and downtown beyond. Basically Beaux-Arts classical in spirit and detail, it displays a lingering fondness for the earlier Queen Anne mode. Its deliberately asymmetrical facade is fronted with an offcenter, giant-order Ionic portico. The pebbledashed portico pediment contains a Palladian window and a modillioned raking cornice. Elongated wooden members of the main cornice support a hipped roof of bright red tile.

Breezemont's owner, Cornelius C. Watts, wore many hats: Confederate soldier, prominent lawyer, state attorney general, state senator, horseman, and friend of Governor William A. MacCorkle. Tradition has it that Watts intended his house to rival MacCorkle's Sunrise ( CH50), built at the same time across the Kanawha. In 1926 the surrounding land was platted as the Breezemont subdivision, and close-by houses date from that time forward. The house was converted to apartments in 1941, and in 1988 architect Paul D. Marshall restored it for use as his home and office.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,