Mills House Hotel

The original Mills House Hotel, later the St. John Hotel, stood on this site for 115 years. Built in 1853 for Otis Mills and designed by architect John E. Earle, the hotel was described in 1857 as “costly in furniture, rich in decoration,” and favored by “all the fashionable gentry.” For many years one of Charleston’s most popular hotels, it was torn down in 1968. The present Mills House Hotel, designed to resemble the original, was completed in 1970.