Built in 1886 for cotton merchant Francis Silas Rodgers at a cost of approximately $200,000 — an extraordinary sum at the time — this five-story Second Empire mansion on Wentworth Street in Charleston's Harleston Village stands as one of the most architecturally complete examples of Gilded Age excess in the American South. The Wentworth Mansion's exterior announces its ambitions immediately: red brick trimmed in cream-painted limestone quoins and cornice work, a slate mansard roof punctuated by decorative ironwork cresting, and two tiers of columned verandas that filter the Carolina light before it reaches the interior. The building was converted into a 21-room inn in 1998, and the restoration preserved the original heart-pine floors, hand-carved mahogany woodwork, and Tiffany stained glass that Rodgers had commissioned for the principal rooms. Inside, the approach to the guest rooms keeps faith with the house's Victorian origins without tipping into pastiche. Mahogany sleigh beds and campaign-style chairs sit against walls painted in warm ochre or soft grey, original marble and cast-iron fireplaces anchored by gilded mirrors, Persian rugs laid over wide-plank pine — the ensemble has the settled confidence of a private house rather than a period recreation. The glassed-in veranda, furnished with wicker armchairs and botanical-print Roman shades, serves as the breakfast room, its checkerboard tile floor and hanging pothos giving it the ease of a Lowcountry garden room. The bar, with its coffered ceiling and a substantial stone fireplace surround, brings a more contemporary restraint to bear on the historic shell.

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