MYSTERY PHOTO: Top of building shows wear and tear

Today’s mystery could be kind of tough.  A reader sent along this shot, accompanied by a good story.  The photo is in South Carolina, but that’s the only hint you’ll get. Send your guess to:  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.  And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our previous Mystery Photo

Our previous mystery, “Who’s this old guy?,” was a Charles Fraser painting of South Carolina’s Henry Laurens that is on display at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston.

Laurens (1724-92), a South Carolinian who served as president of the Second Continental Congress, was the only patriot to have been imprisoned in the Tower of London during the Revolutionary War, writes Dale Rhodes of Richmond, Va.

Sleuth George Graf correctly identified the painting as being Laurens, but said the artist was John Singleton Copley.  According to the Gibbes, its painting of Laurens is an example of an artist copying an artist.  It said that Fraser likely never saw the original, but created his version from an engraving.

Laurens was one of the richest man in the colonies due to the slave trade, Graf shared.  His firm, Austin & Laurens sold about 7,800 African men, women and children between 1751 and 1761, according to various sources.  “Laurens was exchanged after the Battle of Yorktown­ for General Charles Cornwallis.  Shortly thereafter he was instructed to join Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams as a member of the peace commission.”

Cheryl Smithem of Summerville added, citing the Smithsonian, “Laurens arrived in Paris just two days before the preliminary treaty bringing the Revolutionary War to a close was signed on November 30, 1782. He inserted a line in the treaty to prevent the British army from “carrying away any Negroes or other property.” During the war, the British had destabilized the South by promising to liberate slaves who fled from their masters; many did so, and this clause was intended to restore those slaves to their masters.”

Others who correctly identified Laurens were Chris Brooks and Joan Zaleski, both of Mount Pleasant; Marnie Huger of Richmond, Va.; and Bud Ferillo of Columbia.  Congratulations all!

• Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.