(left) Patricia’s home is the Isaac Jenkins Mikell House, which once acted as the Charleston Free Library for nearly 30 years. (right) Classic Charleston gas lamps anchor the iron gate to Patricia’s downtown mansion. High fences with thick greenery help provide a little privacy from the carriage ride tour groups that pass by daily to catch a glimpse of this stately abode.
day and I told them that I learned how to pour tea and we had elocution. There was very little academic concern at that school so my parents then enrolled me at Marymount. French nuns, who were very tough academically, ran this school and I was there until I graduated in the eighth grade. For high school, I was sent away to a Quaker boarding school. Also, I always went to riding camp in the Shenandoah Mountains.
That sounds like a great educational foundation. How did that impact you as you later went on to George Washington University? The Quaker boarding school and French nuns gave me such a good education. I was studying physics, architectural history, and I had learned some Russian, so that by the time I got to George Washington (GW) I studied very hard,
but it was easy for me. I graduated cum laude and I got a Smithsonian fellowship. I worked for Decorative Arts in the History and Technology Building. That started my love for the decorative arts as well as art history. While at GW, I earned a master’s degree in both Art History and Archaeology. Oh, and I was married the entire time I was doing all of this. I got married when I was 20.
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