Hampton Plantation facts for kids
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Hampton Plantation
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Hampton Plantation House in 2010
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| Nearest city | McClellanville, South Carolina |
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| Built | 1730 |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| NRHP reference No. | 70000582 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | April 15, 1970 |
| Designated NHL | April 15, 1970 |
Hampton Plantation is a really old and important place in McClellanville, South Carolina. It's also known as Hampton Plantation House or Hampton Plantation State Historic Site. This historic site was once a large farm where crops were grown, called a plantation.
The main house at Hampton Plantation is super special. It was built a long, long time ago, starting in 1735. It shows one of the first examples in the United States of a "temple front" on a home. This means it has big columns and a triangular roof section, like an ancient Greek temple. It's also a great example of a Georgian style house made of wood. Because it's so important, it was named a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
Contents
Discovering Hampton Plantation's History
Hampton Plantation is located on almost 300 acres (about 120 hectares) of land. It sits right by Hampton Creek, which flows into the Santee River in Charleston County, South Carolina. Today, most of the land is no longer used for farming. Instead, it has returned to its natural state with woods and swamps.
The main house is a large, two-and-a-half-story building made of wood. It has a special roof with windows sticking out, called a dormered hip roof. The outside walls are covered with clapboard siding, and it sits on a brick foundation.
The Unique Temple Front Design
The most striking part of the house is its "temple front." This part sticks out from the main building. It has eight tall Doric columns that hold up a fancy carved design and a triangular gable. This amazing feature was added to the house in 1790–91. Many people believe it was the very first of its kind in the United States!
How the House Grew Over Time
The Hampton Plantation house wasn't built all at once. It was built in different stages, like adding new parts to a puzzle. The first part of the house was built in 1735 by Noe Serre, who was a French refugee. This original part was a two-story building with a hallway in the middle.
In 1757, a man named Daniel Horry bought the property. He made the house much bigger! He added a two-story ballroom on one side. On the other side, he added a large master bedroom suite. To make the house look perfectly balanced, he even put fake windows on the front of these new sections.
The grand front porch, with its temple front, was the last big change to the house. It was finished just in time for a visit from George Washington, who was the first president of the United States!
Famous Families and a Poet's Home
Many important families owned Hampton Plantation over the years. These included the Horry, Pinckney, and Rutledge families. They were all well-known and powerful families in South Carolina.
The last private owner of the plantation was Archibald Rutledge. He was a famous writer and became South Carolina's first official poet. In his 1941 book, Home by the River, he wrote about returning to Hampton Plantation in 1937. He had been away for 33 years! The book tells the story of how he worked to fix up the plantation and its 209-year-old house. His family had owned the property since 1686.
Another famous writer, Pat Conroy, wrote about meeting Archibald Rutledge at Hampton Plantation. Conroy was a teenager who wanted to be a writer. Rutledge talked to him about writing and the long history of the plantation. The state of South Carolina bought the property from the Rutledge family in 1971. Today, it is a state historic site that people can visit and learn from.
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