Historic Homes

(click on thumbnail to see larger print)

Over the last 40 years, I have watched many old “classic” homes decay and disappear from the farms and small towns across South Carolina.  It is always a sad moment when I discover such a house dismantled or burned.

I have started recording many of these properties as a source from which to remember their grandeur should one of these homes vanish.

This effort includes the old Victorians that were so numerous in the late 1800s as well as the historic plantation and private city homes that preceded them.  I have organized this series within the towns and counties where the properties are found.

The first is “Bonny Hall Plantation” on the Combahee River. ( http://south-carolina-plantations.com/beaufort/bonny-hall.html ).  This is the plantation home of early rice planters.  The home is probably in the best condition in which it has ever been as the current owner has restored and maintained it in a wonderful state.  The large live oaks were probably small trees when this was a working plantation but have grown into the stately mammoths we expect on the old plantations.

“The Castle” construction was interrupted by the Civil War and only finished afterwards.  It is known as the Joseph Johnson House on Federal Street – ca. 1859.  This home was auctioned after the Civil War for back taxes and the successful bidder (a Northerner) presented the home back to the original owner.  This is one of up to 50 historic homes in Beaufort, South Carolina that survived the Civil War because Beaufort was captured early in the war and was used as a “hospital” town by the Union Army and was therefore not burned by Sherman’s Army in his march through the South.  This and many other historic homes in Beaufort warrant one’s efforts to visit this enchanting town.

“Branchville, South Carolina”  ( http://www.patsabin.com/lowcountry/branchville.htm ) is the site of the oldest railroad junction in the world.  Incorporated in 1858 after the railroad arrived (in 1832), ( http://www.usacitiesonline.com/scbranchvillehistory.htm ), Branchville developed into a thriving railroad town where many lovely homes were built.  “Dorange and Freedon” and “circa 1880″ are prints of  two such homes that still exist.

Historic Homes can be other than magnificent examples of past architecture.  They don’t even have to be “homes.”  But they do  have to be “historic.”  I find the historic old barns found across South Carolina wonderful structures to study.  There are fewer each year.  Hurricane Hugo destroyed many of the old tobacco barns that used to dot the central and northern portions of South Carolina.  Many more have fallen into disrepair as our small farms disappear.  They are part of the everyday images of the past that will soon only exist in photographs and art prints.  Here are three prints that bring forth our sentimental memories.