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The first permanent settlement in South Carolina was planted at the south of the Cooper River in 1670, near the present site of Charleston. Shortly afterwards, an influx of Puritan refugees and Huguenots carried the area of settlement up the Ashley, Cooper, and Santee Rivers, accounting for the early building in the Pinopolis area. Due to the depredations of the armies in the Revolution and the Civil War and to fire and neglect, only one building in the Pinopolis-Santee region dating back to the pre-Revolutionary period remains intact; another remains in part. It is difficult, therefore, to analyze the architectural background of the large group of later houses that remains. I can be assumed however from the evidence of the early, buildings remaining in the lower part of the county that considerable Huguenot influence was exerted in the development of the middle Berkeley County type. The curvilinear gables of St. Stephens Church and of the North Chacan Plantation coach house, and the less pronounced, but still foreign, features of a building such as Pompion Hill Chapel make it seem sure that such influence was strong and persistent. It is hard to say in what way Huguenot influence would betray itself in South Carolina building. In New Paltz, New York, a Huguenot settlement, houses known to have been built by the settlers are Dutch in character. This may bo because the builders had been domiciled in Holland for a considerable time before emigrating to this country. The same may be true on the case of South Carolina. In the architecture of some of the West Indies, possibly due to Huguenot settlement, there is a curious mingling of French, English, and Dutch forms, producing results not unlike those found in eastern South Carolina. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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So thickly populated by French émigrés was a section the of the Santee River that it was called French Santee in contra distinction to English Santee. The earlier plantations were developed along the river banks because of the profitable riparian culture of rice and indigo. Its prosperity was due to these great money crops up to the Revolution, but then the cessation of the English bounty on the latter threatened the indigo planters with ruin. Many abandoned their river estates as worthless, transferring their families and slaves to inland areas. At this juncture the cotton girt was invented, enabling a sensationally profitable crop to be marketed. The back country could for the first time produce a rich staple such as race and indigo on the rivers. The cotton gin transformed upper Berkeley from a semi-deserted land still suffering from the British campaigns to a fertile region of cotton plantations, Within a few years the fields were replanted and a new era of building activity began. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Among the houses in the Pinopolis area North Hampton and Hanover are exceptionally early. The former was built about 1715 and burned about 1850 and rebuilt. Its brick walls and chimneys survived the fire and indicate the early house to have had the same plan as nearby Limerick and the central block of Mulberry (1714), The house was approximately square with a pair of interior chimneys. These had fireplaces in both the front and rear rooms, the stacks coming through the ridge of the roof. In exterior appearance it might have been similar to Mulberry as they both are of brick and both a story and a half high. North Hampton, however, seems to have lacked the curious towers at the corner of the house that the Mulberry possesses. The roof type is a moot point as it might have had a mansard roof like the latter, or a gable like Limerick, The brick walls are now plastered except under the front porch, where it can be seen that the brick is the large English type brick, laid in English bond. The window arches are segmental, a form usually earlier than the flat arches as seen at Mulberry, and the front windows have key stones. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The outbuildings at North Hampton are unusually complete, There are two balancing two-room cottages in the rear, flanking the main house. These have widely overhanging front eaves protecting the two doors (one to each room) and central chimneys. They are of frame, whitewashed with hand-split shingle roofs. One of the rooms is supposed to have been the kitchen for the main house, but its small size makes this unlikely. Beyond to the north and east are slaves quarters and smoke house, and to the north and west the barn and a shed, the latter of squared logs. The white house and outbuildings are unusually effective set on a flat grassy site, among tall tress hung with Spanish moss. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hanover has lost ail except one of its early plantation buildings and the encroaching woods and unkempt fields have destroyed its original landscape setting. The house, now very dilapidated, is of frame with huge external end chimneys, It is a story and a half high with gambrel roof and originally there was a full basement, but this has filled in so that there is no longer headroom, The house follows the familiar early colonial arrangement of a large room at one end af the front and a smaller room at the other. The center door enters at one end of the large room, This was an age-old plan, but until late in the seventeenth century such a house in the Colonies was always one room deep, an instance being the Wishart house (c. 1678) in Princess Anne County, Virginia. There does not seem to be any house in South Carolina of this earlier type, though Middleburg (1696) in Berkeley County has certain affinities to it. There is, however, a group of early eighteenth century houses in South Carolina which preserves the "great hall" arrangement in plans two rooms deep. Examples are Brick House, Edisto Island; Mulberry; Limerick, etc., It is to this group that Hanover belongs, though the mannerisms of the Huguenot builder are so pronounced as to give the building a character entirely its own. It recalls the houses of Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, in its gambrel roof, wide spreading dormers, and in the detail of the woodwork, The placement of the chimneys of Hanover at the ends is also a variation from the South Carolina examples cited. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Unfortunately all of the original sash is gone and there are no old frames on the lower floor. It is impossible, therefore, to determine the character of the original sash, but it is more than possible that wood casements were used. There are examples in New Orleans in the Ursuline Convent and in the Guibourd house at Ste.. Genevieve, Missouri. (See "A Guide to Ste. Genevieve," Mr. C. E. Peterson, 1940.) No other eighteenth century examples of French provenance are known to the writer in this country, though once they must have been in widespread use. Many Dutch examples remain in the Hudson Valley. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The present sash is modern, three lights wide and four high, and none of it has old trim or frames. In the dormer windows the shape of the almost square openings zs original. It easily can be seen that double-casement sash would fit the openings admirably, The squareness of the dormers and their heavy pediment roofs are foreign to the architecture of the region of English background. The curious scrolled terminations of the headpieces were designed to receive the heavy horizontal cornices of the return. The shape of the main roof has a rather Gallic aspect, recalling roof lines in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St. Croix, Certainly the house is an interesting blending of French and English forms and details. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The two end chimneys are particularly fine and have surprisingly medieval character. Each has three flues, one from each story. In building the stacks no attempt was made to achieve anything but a functional structure. The result is a pair of extremely interesting shafted chimneys with lateral and longitudinal weathered offset. They are entirely built of large handmade brick laid in Flemish bond, except in the upper shafts, where common bond is used. The caps are simply corbeled and have plastered neckings. In the east chimney is an incised inscription "Peu-a-Peu" said to have come from the old French quotation "Peu a Peu L' oiseau fait son nid." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The front door is a single valve 4 feet 2 inches wide and is paneled in the French style. There are two large horizontal panels separated by a narrow one in the center. This latter has a sunk panel mould, and the former very wide bevels covered with richly worked applied mouldings at the intersection with the rails and styles. The door is probably unique in this country and is so completely French in character as to be indistinguishable from a typical French door. That it might be imported was considered, but as it seems to be of yellow pine its local origin is indicated. The back of the door has the large panels subdivided by verticals set in to make it conform to the design of the single interior doors. The rear entrance is a double door, each leaf of which is paneled with a square panel between two verticals., This is characteristic of the region and period Exeter (1726) having a pair only slightly different in proportion. In common with the windows, frames, and sash some of the weatherboards are modern. The wood porch on the front is of recent origin, there probably being none originally. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The interior partitions are of unusual form, perhaps of French derivation being paralleled by those of Middleburg. They are formed by vertical shesthing, covered with a series of vertical and horizontal battens forming pseudo panels. Behind the sheathing are widely spaced studs to give it rigidity. In the north wall is a cupboard with arched paneled doors, and in the rear hall an open corner cupboard. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All of the original trim on the inside of the outside walls has perished, suggesting that the walls may have been plastered. The mantels in the front rooms are similar an architrave surround supporting a narrow friezes and cornice. They would seem to date from about 1800. The stair ascending with with winders from the east of the rear door has no architectural trim. The great chimneys, due to their position, serve only the front rooms, the rear rooms having no means of heating. The location of the chimneys between the front and rear rooms at North Hampton, Mulberry, and Brick House obviates this condition, and this latter placement became typical of the region. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The attic is interesting as being entirely sheathed with wood. The exterior walls and soffit of the roof are covered with horizontal boards, some of which are lapped in the reverse manner of weatherboards, evidently to prevent rain from penetrating. The inside partitions are of vertical boards, fixed to the sheathed ceiling and to the floor. There doors occur they are hung on jamb studs that extend from floor to coiling and have a had piece, mortised and tenoned in at the level of the top of the battened door. About 3 feet 6 inches above the floor are horizontal members, fixed between the jamb studs and the roof timbers to stabilize the boards of the vertical sheathing. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hanover is the only house in the proposed region of inundation the loss of which can be considered of national importance. The rest of the group were built after 1800 and, while interesting in many ways and especially notable for their beautiful trim, are not as important, and somewhat similar examples will remain nearby. Hanover, however, seems to be unique in the colonies. It is to be hoped that arrangements can be made for its careful reconstruction on a suitable site, as an example of an early South Carolina house of Anglo-French antecedents. Where seem to be no structures remaining in the region of the period between the building of Hanover in 1716 and of Belvedere, shortly before 1800. There were two centers of post-revolutionary building activity , one in the vicinity of the Rocks Creek and one near the present Pinopolis. Each had its own plan type; so they will be discussed separately. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The earliest of the new cotton plantation houses was Beividere, built by the Sinkler family, near Eutaw Springs in 1786. Its plan is important in understanding later houses within the area. Typical of the group, Belvedere is of frame on an open brick foundation and is two full stories high. It has a gable roof which the others possess as well, except Cedar Spring, Pooshee, Loch Dhu, Lawson's Pond, and The Rocks, which have hip roofs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The plan is particularly significant ae it shows the The plan survival of the early asymmetric plan of two unequal rooms in front and a central hall flanked by two rooms in the rear. There are two entrance doors side by side, one entering the smaller room, one the larger as possibly there may have been Hanover. Across the front is a wide porch an integral part of the architecture of the house, The addition of this element may have caused the doubling of the doors. In this way it was welded more perfectly to the dwelling as a living space and the necessity of a hall was done away with. In the earlier houses built before the necessity of porches in the southern climate was appreciated, the porch was used only as a shelter to the entrance door may have been at Hanover, Across the front is a wide porch, an integral part of the architecture of the house, The addition of this element may have caused the doubling of the doors. In this way it was welded more perfectly to the dwelling as a living space and the necessity of a hall was done away with. In the earlier houses built before the necessity of porches in the southern climate was appreciated, the porch was used only as a shelter to the entrance door. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The plan was one suited to the locality, as it gave four rooms with cross ventilation, It preserved for the family the privacy of the two front rooms by making the stairhall en entirely separate unit. In this the servants could go about their business without corning into the front part of the house unless called, It also meant that the length of the house could he decreased since the front rooms did not have to be cut down by the width of the hall. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There wore two difficulties with the asymmetric plan. It wraped the fenestration in an unpleasant way throwing the pair of doors off center and allowed. only direct access from one of the front rooms to the stairhall. This is the case in both Belvidere and Eutaw. The obvious way ta correct this difficulty was to shift the partition to the center of the house. This latter plan was to became standard in the Eutaw Springs vicinity though not in the Pinopolis area. It consisted of a pair of equal drawing rooms in the front with an intercommunicating door, and a door to the porch from each. These rooms had a pair of windows on each outside wall. and a fireplace in the rear wall, with a door to the hall at one side. This rear hall had a stair against one wall and a pair of closets facing it. At the rear were the doors to the flanking rooms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elaborations of this plan are found at Pond Bluff and The Rocks, where an extension was made at the rear in the form of a covered porch at the end of the hall, with a small room at other side, These latter are heated by chimneys built against the side wall, The rear extension, duplicating the outline of the front. porch, served to balance the side elevation. At Springfield the most elaborate plan of the group is found. Here the main block is standard, but at either side is a one-room wing with front porch. The same plan occurs at Eutaw, though the wings, dating from 1820 and 1838, are not contemporary with the house. A wide porch surrounds the house, giving access to the wings. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Eutaw, built in 1808, is in many ways the alpha and omega of the architecture of the region. It betrays traditional features such as the asymmetric plan and the utilization of the roof space for bedrooms with dormer windows. On the other hand, with its low spreading roof and broad piazzas on open arcades it approaches the perfection of the later Carolina-Caribbean type of which Dean Hall in lower Berkeley is the exemplar, At present Eutaw has a dilapidated air, but painted and with blinds on the dormer windows it would regain its original beauty. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The raising of the piazzas on an open arcade is unique in the upper county, as is the porch on three sides of the house. The columns, however, are almost typical, being slender, turned members of a Doric type made out of solid cypress. The porch eaves are moulded in the form of a simple cornice. The house itself is covered with cypress weatherboarding which extends up the gable ends, the verge boards of which are unmoulded. The dormers also are covered in the simplest manner the cheeks being of flush boarding as are the gable spandrels, and the window trim is unmoulded other than the dormers, the windows have paneled shutters, The ornament is concentrated on the doorway, which has reeded pilasters with a dentiled cornice above. The interior possesses woodwork that is simple compared to the other houses of the group, but dignified and satisfied. The overmantel of the drawing room is treated with three arched head panels. The mantel probably brought from elsewhere, has slender reeded pilasters with fans carved in the frieze blocks and dentiled and carved cornices. The dado and doors are paneled, with a supplementary applied. panel mould, the doors having glazed transoms, lighting the hall. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pond Bluff, on the bluff above the Santee River swamps, was built about 1820 as a dower house for Springfield, It is the smallest of the plantation houses of the region but, set in well cultivated fields, shaded by a huge live oak and bright with fresh paint it is perhaps the most attractive of them all. Its low gable roof which continues over the front porch and rear shed, relates well to the terrain which rises smoothly to the house on both front and rear. The porch, which extends across the front, has slender tapered square posts and a railing of light rectangular. balusters, The house retains its original beaded weatherboards on sides and rear. The gable and front wall are covered with the original horizontal flush boarding. This treatment of the gable parallels other attempts to make the gable assume the form of a classic pediment. The most successful essay an this line is to be seen in the Pinopolis area at Whitehall. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Against the flush sheathing of the front wall the doorways are wall displayed. The doors are six-panel with glazed transoms and an architrave surround. Between the two architraves in the center mullion is a narrow paneled space and above spanning the two openings and the mullion, are a frieze and a dentiled cornice, This is a comparatively simple treatment compared to all of the other examples but it is very agreeable. The interior trim is of the same type. The drawing rooms have sunk paneled dados, walnut fireplace surrounds moulded like broad architraves, and six-panel doors with simple trim. There are no cornices at the ceiling line, while the stair has plain balusters and posts, a paneled dado occurs against the wall both on the horizontal and the rake. The ascent of the stair is characteristic, but in order to obtain headroom at the landing a large projection occurs on the roof. Pond Bluff retains a great many of its original plantation buildings, including the early kitchen and smoke house. These possess interesting diagonally sheathed doors with fine wrought-iron hardware and probably date from the erection of the earlier house, which was built by General Francis Marion but destroyed by fire in 1816. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The full development of the Eutaw and Pond Bluff scheme is in The Rocks the finest of the Eutaw Springs, group. This was built in 1805 by Captain Peter Gaillard who, seeking to retrieve his fortune lost with the extinction of the indigo trade, bought the land and raised cotton on it. The land, enriched by marl (causing the plantation name) proved to bo a bonanza, and only eight years after the purchase he was able to complete his fine house. Fortunately, Gaillard's day book is still in existence, and this gives 1803 as the data of the commencement of building preparations and 1805 as completion. The plan agrees with that of Pond Bluff oven to the rear covered porch and flanking pair of all small shed rooms. In elevation, however, it is a complete departure as it is two full stories high and has a hipped roof. The Rocks should be the culmination of the architectural development of the region, as its suave design and beautiful detail place it as the finest of the group, It antedates them, however; so the other house in a way must bo considered a decadence. A part of the plantation is in the area of inundation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The house is well maintained and shows its features in excellent condition, It rests on a fairly high basement and is weatherboarded on all elevation. Nine-light sash is used, as usual in the windows both upstairs and down. Louvered shutters occur except on the porch, where they are paneled. The posts of the porch are Tuscan columns attenuated to express wood' the material used, instead of stone. They are well designed and, while lacking the graceful naivete of the slender posts of the other early examples, have a pleasantly substantial character. Both the porch and, the main cornice are enriched with closely spaced pseudo - modillions and triglyples. The roof is hipped, the planes being pitched at about thirty degrees. Its design is very satisfactory, giving an offset of repose and relating well to the site. The roof is pierced on the side slopes by large square chimney stacks, and the lower courses of the caps are painted white to simulate the almost universal plastered neckings found in this region. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In recent years The Rocks was sold and thoroughly repaired by 'the new owners. The house, therefore, possesses a well kept air that most of the others lack. The interior has its fine original woodwork in perfect condition. The mantels are of exceptional merit, and according to Gaillard's day book were ordered from the north. Their design suggests Rhode Island as their source, similar motives being found in such houses as the Nightingale house in Providence, although this latter example is earlier and more elaborate. The mantels themselves are quite typical, with slender reeded pilasters supporting a narrow fluted architrave, wide frieze and delicate cornice. The latter has a band of all of Troy dentils, and the pilaster and frieze blocks have carved sunbursts. Surrounding the fireplaces are facings of closely mottled Pennsylvania blue marble. The overmantels have coupled reeded pilasters supporting full entablatures similar in detail to that below, though lacking the carved blocks, and possessing broken serpentine pediments. The central panel is richly moulded with a supplementary applied moulding. This latter is cut at the corners in the form of indented quadrants. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The cornice of the room repeats the detail of the mantel and caps a frieze decorated with closely spaced triglyples and metopes, the former reeded and the latter filled with lozenge devices. The dado is paneled with moulded chair rail and base, the former showing some carving. While the stair hall lacks the enrichments of though mantels its refined detail and judicial disposition of mouldings give it great distinction. A paneled dado surrounds the hall and continues up the stair. The balustrade is formed of simple rectangular verticals, three to a tread, and a simply moulded walnut handrail. The newel is square in plan, cut to a profile of an attenuated Doric column. Decorating the stair ends are interlacing strapwork brackets above a raking architrave. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The only house in the area which approaches The Rocks in architectural importance is Lawson Pond built in 1816. This is beyond the water line on high ground. Through many pears of weathering it has assumed a gravity of color that minimizes the resemblance to The Rocks. This apparent dissimilarity is furthered by the return of the porch across one end and by the omission of the rear shed. The design of the two buildings, however, is remarkably similar and they may have been by the same architect or master builder. Lawson Pond possesses all of its features in an unrestored condition; making it of greater interest to the antiquarian. Except for a slightly larger scale, and the features already noted, the parallel is nearly exact. The shutters are paneled throughout, the porch columns are most attenuated and the twin doorways are greatly enriched. The effectiveness of the building is increased by its location on top of a knoll shaded by tall moss-hung trees. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The interior has excellent trim the doors and windows being treated with pilasters and full entablatures, the friezes of which are decorated with strapwork. The main cornices are fully moulded above friezes carved with sunbursts. The wood mantels have remains of exceptionally fine stucco work in the form of vases, festoons, and griffins. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Loch Dhu, just north of Lawson Pond, has the typical plan of the vicinity; yet the house achieves considerable individuality on the exterior by the use of a high hipped roof with tail flanking chimneys. The style of the roof is more that of Cedar Springs, near Pinopolis, than of The Rocks or Lawson Pond. Thestructure itself is two full stories with the usual fenestration, except that above the paired front doors a single off-center window occurs. This would seem to be the result of an alteration, either from a wide unbroken wall surfaces as at Somerset, or a pair of windows, one of which may have been blocked. Only the lower windows retain their paneled shutters, the others having been removed much to the detriment of the design, which needs the strong horizontal band they would give below the high roof. The house has a fine tree-bordered forecourt and an excellent site with the grado rising toward it. The building must have been very effective in its pristine condition and reminiscent of mid-Georgian buildings such as the Brick House on Edisto Island. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The interior of Loch Dhu possesses fairly simple but well designed trim. Tho woodwork of the drawing rooms has gouged and carved festoons and sunbursts in the friezes of the mantels and main cornices. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On low ground to the north of Loch Dhu stands Springfield, built in 1818 for Joseph Palmer, ancestor of the present owner. The records of the building of the house are extant and show that it was built by George Champlin, who commenced work on October 20, 1817, and finished on June 17, 1818. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The building has none of the grace or refinement of The Rocks or Lawson Pond, though its trim exceeds in elaboration any other in either the lower or upper inundation areas. The house is very broad and deep and is covered by a gable roof of vast proportions. At the apex is a pair of large squat chimneys with the traditional plaster necking. The gable ends are treated as pediments, but their great height gives them an ungainly aspect. The house is two stories above a high basement, with the usual fenestration. It has a central triple window on the second floor, duplicating a similar feature at Lawson Pond, Walworth, and Pooshee, The lower windows are treated with decorative frames of pilaster strips and entablatures. Sheltered by the usual front porch the double doorway is of great elaboration, as are those of the little wings. In the latter case the windows and door are grouped in a Palladianesque motive. The posts of the main porch are slender turned columns, but in the wing porches (perhaps not original) square tapered, shafts are employed. The cornices of the main porch, the house, and the wings have delicate shallow modillions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The woodwork of the interior possesses elaborately gouged, reeded, and bored ornament reaching its climax in two huge frontispiece mantels. The mantels proper have pilasters with an overall honeycomb pattern in gouged work, The architraves they support are carved with diminutive sunbursts and fluting, and the friezes with a profusion of large, small, half, and quarter sunbursts. The cornices have channeled dentils, with gouged rope mould above, and a carved chain ornament on the fascia. The high overmantel is composed of four pilasters similar to those below, with a wide paneled space between the two center pilasters and similar narrow spaces between the center and outside pilasters, These latter do not line with the pilasters below as they do at The Rocks, The effect is restless, and the relationship of the mantel to the overmantel is poor. The paneled areas of the latter are divided into groups of small panels, all with supplementary applied mouldings with cut corners. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The main cornice of the room matches the minor cornices, though the corona here is carved and the soffit of the cymatium is enriched with strapwork. The frieze below is carved with alternating circular and elliptical sunbursts at large scale, which are repeated at very small scale in the dado cap. The latter is paneled, with subsidiary applied moulds. The windows and doors have pilasters and entablatures matching those of the mantelpieces. Elsewhere in the house unostentatious trim is used with good effect. Behind the house are the ruins of the kitchen chimney containing a domical oven. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There are two houses, Ophir and Somerset, in the Pinopolis area that employ
the "Santee type" plan. The former dwelling marks a mean between
the urbanity of The Rocks and the provincialism of Springfield* It
was built about 1810 by Peter Porcher, brother-in-law of Pater Gaillard
of The Rocks. In this relationship is probably the explanation of
the use of the plan type here. Ophir is a largo scale,
two-story, gable roof house, rather barnlike in effect, which has the merit of directness^ lack of affectation, and excellent trim. The exterior is the envelope of the interior without any architectural pretention. It is weatherboarded with fine cypress stock, and in the elevations are logically spaced sixteen-light windows equipped with the original paneled or louvered shutters. The huge gable is frankly treated as such, with bargeboards decorated with reeded triglyples and lozenge paterae. This enrichment is carried across the frieze of the main cornice. The present porch has delicate tapered posts with wide overhanging eaves and a railing of closely spaced rectangular balusters. The great spreading exterior brick stairway is modern but is a type much used in this part of the State. The bellcast, or easing of the main roof at the eaves, is unusual in the area, as is the use of dormer windows, the only examples occurring in all the two-story houses under consideration except Pooshee and Indianfield. Very reminiscent of Springfield are the truncated chimney stacks with plastered neckings and capping washes. |
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The interiors of Ophir are satisfying as balancing broad plastered surfaces
with well considered, but elaborately carved woodwork. The twin parlors
each have a paneled dado, low mantel, and full cornice and frieze. The
mantels are the best examples of gouged and carved work of the area, the
motives being well adapted to the spaces and the execution crisply done.
The pilasters are reeded, with
moulded caps and bases, and the architraves are carved with grouped flutes alternating with medallions. The mantel cornices have the same dentils as seen at Springfield, but There are erect oval sunbursts in the pilaster blocks and horizontal sunbursts in the key block, with quarter sunbursts filling each corner of the panels. The intervening spaces of the friezes are filled with double festoons of triple garlands of gouging. Delicate pendants and medallions are used for accents. These same motives are repeated in friezes under the main cornices and carry continuously around the room. The main cornices themselves are simply moulded with Wall of Troy dentil courses in the bed moulds. The mantels in the rear rooms are less ornate with larger scale detail. |
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Altogether Ophir may be considered the most indigenous of the group, and, though some of the elements of the design may seem maladroit, they are the result of native solutions for native problems. The general trimness that the house possesses in mass and detail results from logical design of decorative features and the logical relation of the details to the whole. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A curious survival of the twin-parlor plan is Somerset, built in 1827. It has the typical arrangement, even to the rear shed which balances the front porch. The exterior of the house is awkward, as it is square and high and stands on a perfectly flat site without any planting to soften the lines of the building. Somewhat smaller in scale than most of the houses of the type, it possesses only four windows across the front and three on the side the former condition creates a wide wall space on the facade over the double doorway. The latter causes the fenestration of the side elevations to be unsymmetrical, as the front windows are grouped to light one of the parlors, and the rear window is spaced toward the rear to center in the back room. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The house is two full stories over a high basement and is covered with unpainted cypress weatherboards. The gable is treated as a pediment, the horizontal and raking cornices containing mutules. The tympanum of the gable is flush sheathed with a large triple centered on it. The chimneys project from the ridge and the caps are almost identical with those at Ophir, though high pointed arch flue bonnets give the shafts more verticality. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The heavy square porch columns are said to be replacements dating from 1852, when probably the marble mantels of the front parlors were inserted. Except for the mantels and the doors the interiors are original and possess woodwork of considerable merit. The doors and windows of the front rooms have trim that is composed of a band of reeding framed by a moulded backhand. The dados are paneled, with an applied supplementary panel mould, and have moulded and marbleized bases and carved chair rails. The motive used for the carving is continuous fluting with an undulating interruption in the center. This is reminiscent of carving of the Delaware River area. It is possible that the craftsmen employed in Upper Berkeley County came from Philadelphia, since there are many similarities to be seen in the type of ornament and in the method employed in the two localities. The cornices of the Somerset parlors have a curious enrichment of two tiers of diminutive brackets below a carved and bored cymatium and above a fluted frieze, The mantels are plain late Empire style in black and gold marble. The rear rooms, however, have reeded carved and gouged mantels in many ways paralleling those of Ophir. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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