Hobcaw Barony facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
|
|
Hobcaw Barony
|
|
_5a31131r.jpg)
Rear view of the Hobcaw House
|
|
 Location in South Carolina
Location in the United States
|
|
| Location | Roughly bounded by U.S. Route 17, Winyah and Mud Bays and Jones Creek, near Georgetown, South Carolina |
|---|---|
| Built | 1930 (Hobcaw House) 1936 (Bellefield Plantation) |
| Architect | Lafaye and Lafaye (Hobcaw House) Murgatroyd and Ogden (Bellefield Plantation) |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival (Hobcaw House) |
| MPS | Georgetown County Rice Culture MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 94001236 |
| Added to NRHP | November 02, 1994 |
Hobcaw Barony is a huge 16,000-acre area of land located on a peninsula called Waccamaw Neck. This special place is found between Winyah Bay and the Atlantic Ocean in Georgetown County, South Carolina. Much of Hobcaw Barony is south of US Highway 17.
A wealthy investor and advisor to presidents, Bernard M. Baruch, bought this land between 1905 and 1907. He was from South Carolina and used Hobcaw Barony as a winter getaway for hunting. Later, his oldest daughter, Belle W. Baruch, started buying parts of the property from her father in 1936. By 1956, Belle owned all of Hobcaw Barony.
When Belle passed away in 1964, the property became the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. It was set up as a nature and research preserve. The area has more than 37 historic buildings and structures. These buildings show what life was like during the 1700s and 1800s when rice was grown, and also during the 1900s when it was a winter retreat. Hobcaw Barony was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 2, 1994.
Today, the Belle W. Baruch Foundation works with the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Together, they run the Hobcaw Barony Discovery Center. They offer tours and special programs for visitors to learn about the area.
Contents
Exploring Hobcaw Barony's Past
In 1718, a nobleman named John, Lord Carteret received a royal grant for 12,000 acres of land. This land was on Hobcaw Point, at the southern tip of Waccamaw Neck. In the mid-1700s, this large area was divided and sold into smaller pieces.
From Rice Plantations to a Hunting Retreat
These smaller pieces of land became about a dozen rice plantations. These plantations helped Georgetown County produce a lot of rice between the American Revolution and the American Civil War. After the Civil War, rice farming became less common. This was partly because there were fewer workers and more rice was being grown in Louisiana.
Bernard Baruch bought Hobcaw Barony and more land in three steps between 1905 and 1907. He wanted to turn it into a winter hunting spot. Even though rice was no longer grown, the old canals and dirt walls were kept. They made a great home for waterfowl like ducks and geese.
Starting in 1935, Baruch began selling parts of Hobcaw Barony to his daughter, Belle Baruch. Her first purchase was 5,000 acres in the northern part of the property. She built her own home and stable complex, which she called Bellefield Plantation. She also built a small house for her stable manager and a small airport hangar.
Before Belle Baruch passed away in 1964, she created the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. Her goal was to keep Hobcaw Barony as an educational center. It would be used for studying forests and marine biology, which is the study of ocean life.
The Hobcaw House: A Famous Winter Home
_5a31132r.jpg)
The Hobcaw House was where the Baruch family spent their winters. It is about 4 miles south of the main entrance and looks out over Winyah Bay. This house was built in 1930. It replaced the older Donaldson House, which had burned down in 1929. The new house was made of red brick and designed in the Colonial Revival style by architects Lafaye and Lafaye from Columbia, South Carolina.
Bernard Baruch often invited many important friends to Hobcaw Barony. Winston Churchill and his daughter, Diana, visited in 1932. President Roosevelt even took a month-long working vacation there in the spring of 1944 during World War II. Other famous guests included generals, senators, and well-known figures like Ralph Pulitzer and Walter Huston.
Bellefield Plantation: Belle Baruch's Estate
The Bellefield House Complex is about 1.25 miles south of the main entrance. The house was designed by Murgatroyd and Ogden from New York and built in 1936. It is a two-story house with four smaller, single-story sections and a brick service area at the back. The house has a pointed roof and sits on a raised area surrounded by live oaks and pine trees. A landscape architect named Umberto Innocenti designed the beautiful gardens.
The Bellefield Garage, also designed by Murgatroyd and Ogden, had space for four cars. It also included a laundry room and two rooms for staff. The Bellefield Stable was very important to Belle. It was designed by John D. W. Churchill and built in 1937. Nearby, there was also a kennel for hunting dogs and a coop for fowl.
Historic Villages and Rice Fields
Hobcaw Barony also holds important reminders of its past.
Friendfield Village and Other Settlements
_5a31128r.jpg)
Several old settlements where workers lived still exist. Friendfield Village, located between Kings Highway and Hobcaw Road, has five unused houses, a church, and a small clinic. It also has several old cabins from before the Civil War. Two of these cabins were updated around 1905. The Friendfield Church, built in 1890, is a rectangular building with wooden siding and a metal roof with a small spire. Two more cottages were built in Friendfield Village around 1935.
Barnyard Village is another settlement on the old Friendfield Plantation. It has one cabin from before the Civil War that was updated between 1890 and 1905. Two homes for Hobcaw Barony employees were built there in 1925.
Strawberry Village is about 0.5 miles north of the main Hobcaw Barony Complex. The Strawberry School was built in 1915 for the African-American children living at Hobcaw Barony and was made larger in 1935.
The Importance of Rice Fields
The rice fields were a huge part of life in this area during the 1800s. Many of the canals, banks, and water gates from that time have been kept up at Hobcaw Barony. Large sections of the old Alderley, Oryzantia, Youngfield, Bellefield, Strawberry Hill, Michaux, and Calais Plantations still have their original rice field layouts. Some areas, like parts of the Marrietta, Friendfield, and Strawberry Hill Plantations, have been changed over time.
Nature and Other Features
More than 8,000 acres of forests remain at Hobcaw Barony. These forests include hardwood trees, loblolly and longleaf pine, and cypress/tupelo swamps. Most of these forests have not been cut down since Baruch bought the land. However, some trees were harvested in 1944 and 1945 to help with the war effort.
Parts of the historic King's Highway still exist as a dirt road. It runs from near Highway 17 to Frasers Point on Winyah Bay, south of the Hobcaw House Complex.
A hangar at Bellefield Airport was built for two planes that Belle Baruch used. This airfield was rented to the US Army in 1942 to help with World War II.
Parts of the Friendfield Plantation Rice Mill are still there. The brick building with a chimney and a winnowing house (used for separating rice) were likely built in the 1870s.
There are also old cemeteries on the property, including the Calais Cemetery, the Fairfield or Donaldson Cemetery, the Alderly Cemetery, and the Marietta/Bellefield Cemetery.
Since 2013, salt marshes have grown slightly larger. This is happening because of rising sea levels, which cause saltwater to move further inland and kill trees.
Art Recovery at Hobcaw Barony
In 2003, some valuable artwork went missing from Bellefield House. For a long time, the most important pieces, including a portrait of Belle Baruch with her horse and some bird prints, could not be found.
The Baruch Foundation offered a $25,000 reward for information about the missing art. There wasn't much progress until an "Antiques Roadshow" episode aired in February 2013. People hoped this would help, but no real clues were found, and the search went quiet until 2016.
In 2016, art experts John and Patty Ivy were helping to sell items from an estate. When they saw some of the art, they recognized the artist's name. They contacted a professor, Frazer Pajak, who had worked with the Baruch Foundation before. Pajak immediately knew the artwork. The Ivys then contacted George Chastain, the director of the Belle Baruch Foundation, and the FBI. Thanks to their efforts, the missing paintings were returned to The Baruch Foundation. As of 2016, six other paintings of Hobcaw Barony by artist Louis Aston Knight are still missing.
Modern Research Centers
Today, Hobcaw Barony is home to important research facilities. The University of South Carolina operates the Baruch Institute for Marine & Coastal Sciences. Also, Clemson University has its Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science here. These institutes help scientists study the coast, marine life, and forests.
