Millford Plantation is only open to the public for 6 days out of the year and they sell out quickly. Today's tour is a private event arranged by Jessica Elfenbein as part of USC Wood Basket of the World conference.
Ryan Spencer leads a discussion of the property while we have lunch on the lawn. Ryan is an employee of the Classic American Homes Preservation Trust which owns the home and several other classic American homes. We met a couple members of the previous owners, the Clark family. They had lived their whole lives on the property and are still employed there now.
The land the home sits on was inherited by John Laurence Manning when his father died. Manning was still studying at Princeton at the time. Shortly after finishing his studies at South Carolina College, John married Susan Hampton, daughter of Wade Hampton I. She had already inherited a half interest in a sugar cane plantation in Ascension Parrish Louisiana when her father died a few years earlier. The young couple, both just 22 years old endeavored to build their grand home sparing no expense. They engaged a Rhode Island builder, Nathanial Potter to build it. Potter was already working in the area, rebuilding many buildings in Charleston following the great fire of 1838. The Mannings had Duncan Phyfe design and build all the furniture. Construction began in 1839 and they moved in the next year.
Greek Revival architecture was popular among the wealthiest of Americans. However, beyond that, the home has some incredible features for the era. Central heat was incorporated into the design. A spring supplied water, pumped into a water tower disguised as a lighthouse using leather lined lead pipes. From the water tower, running water was supplied to the kitchen and laundry. The grounds were landscaped with dozens of evergreen trees from throughout the world. The nursery bill for the trees still exists.
The home was never a working plantation. The Mannings' income was from the Louisiana sugar cane plantation which enslaved over 600 Africans by 1860 making John Manning the 6th largest slave owner in the country. Susan died while giving childbirth in 1845. A few years later John marries Sally Clark of Virginia, just 19 years old. One of his love letters to her is on display.
John is elected as a state legislator, then state senator, then governor. He also signed the South Carolina Articles of Succession. His copy was hidden behind a bookcase in the house during the war. John served as an officer during the war but by 1865 in the waning days of the Confederacy, he was back at Millford. Sherman had burned his way through South Carolina just to the west of Millford. By the time Sherman reached Fayetteville, he wanted to exact a greater toll from South Carolina's wealthy plantation holders in the eastern part of the state. Sending General Edward Potter to Georgetown and back, the excursion is now known as "Potter's Raid". Returning from Georgetown, Potter marched back to Fayetteville with 6000 freed slaves accompanying him as he burned plantations. On the day before the surrender at Appomattox, the general approached Millford. He was greeted at the front door by John Manning. After being introduced to the general, Manning is said to have replied, "This house was built by a Potter and now will be destroyed by a Potter". In one of the quirky footnotes of history, Edward Potter, brother of Nathanial Potter recognized his brother's work and spared the home. Had he known Manning had signed the Articles of Succession and a copy was hidden in the house, things may have been different.
The Mannings continued to live in the home until 1869. Unable to afford maintaining the home, the Mannings moved elsewhere. The home was occupied by one of the former slaves for 20 plus years. She was the sole occupant and there was a nearby building occupied by another former slave. Manning died in 1889 and who occupied the home from then until 1902 is not clear. Heirs of John Manning sold the home to a wealthy widow from New York, Sally Clark Thompson. She renovated the home and used it as a winter retreat until her death in 1923. The Clark family continued to own the home until 1992. Richard Jenrette had made a fortune as a founder of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette and later head of Equitable Insurance. He was a collector of homes. During his life, he bought and sold close to 30 homes, keeping about a half dozen. He acquired Millford in 1992 after Hurricane Hugo had overwhelmed the area. His main residence was Edgewater on the Hudson in New York. Each year, he would leave there in the fall, occupy his Hillsborough NC home, Ayr Mount for a month, continue to Millford, then to Roper House in Charleston, then to his estate in the Virgin Islands. In 2008, he created the Classic American Homes Preservation Trust to maintain all the homes except the one in the Virgin Islands.
The kitchen is attached to the home by a covered walkway.
The spring house is a small replica of Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia.
Water tower disguised as a lighthouse
Our approach to the home was the rear of the house. Kitchen is on the left and laundry on the right.
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