Millford Plantation (also spelled Milford) is a historic farmstead and plantation house located on SC 261 west of Pinewood, South Carolina. It was sometimes called Manning's Folly, because of its remote location in the High Hills of Santee section of the state and its elaborate details. Designated as a National Historic Landmark, it is regarded as one of the finest examples of Greek Revival residential architecture in the United States.[3] The house has been restored and preserved along with many of its original Duncan Phyfe furnishings.
Millford Plantation's monumental two-story Greek Revivalmansion was built in Clarendon (now Sumter) County between 1839 and 1841 for John L. Manning and his wife, Susan Frances Hampton Manning. John Manning enslaved 670 people of African descent, more than almost any of his contemporaries.[4] Manning later served as Governor of South Carolina from 1852 to 1854.
The builder, Nathaniel F. Potter of Providence, Rhode Island, may have also done the design work.
Its imposing facade features six large carved Corinthian columns on granite bases that support the portico. Its 2-foot-thick (0.61m) walls are of brick made on the premises; the granite was shipped from Rhode Island.
The excellence of Millford's architecture extends throughout the house, from the tall floor-to-ceiling windows to a spectacular circular staircase rising, seemingly without support, in a domed cylindrical chamber on the rear side of the building.
Susan Frances Hampton was the daughter of General Wade Hampton I, one of the largest slave owners in the United States,[5] and his wife, Mary Cantey; she was half-sister of Colonel Wade Hampton II. Although by law he inherited from their father after his death in 1835, Wade III shared the estate with Susan and another sister. Much of the money to build the Millford mansion (it cost $125,000, an enormous sum in 1840) probably came from Susan Hampton Manning's recent inheritance.[6]
Susan Hampton Manning died in 1845 giving birth to her third child with John L. Manning. In 1848 Manning married Sally Bland Clarke and had four children with her.[7]
Near the end of the Civil War, the residence was threatened with destruction by Union troops on April 19, 1865, but was saved by the intervention of their commander, Brigadier General Edward E. Potter of New York. His exchange with Governor Manning was recorded as follows:
Potter: This is a fine structure.
Manning: Well, the house was built by a Potter (Nathaniel Potter, the architect) and it looks as though it will be destroyed by a Potter.
Potter: No, you are protected. Nathaniel Potter was my brother.[8]
When General Potter spared Millford, he did not know that Manning had a copy of the Articles of Secession in his desk. The story of Millford's survival might have ended quite differently had he known.[9]
Another view from the Historic American Buildings Survey
Despite economic ruin during and after the Civil War, the Manning family and their descendants managed to retain possession of Millford until 1902. That year they sold it to Mary Clark Thompson of New York. She bequeathed it to her two nephews upon her death in 1923. It remained in the Clarks' hands until 1992, used by the family primarily as a winter retreat and for hunting and fishing.[8][10]
The house, along with 400 acres of surrounding land, was acquired in May 1992 from three of the Clark descendants and was meticulously restored by Richard Hampton Jenrette. He is one of the founders of the New York investment banking firm, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and a collateral descendant of Susan Hampton Manning. He referred to the estate as "the Taj Mahal of my dreams".[13]
In 1995, Jenrette received a South Carolina Historic Preservation Award for Millford. In 2006 he received the Governor's Award for his work on Millford and the Robert William Roper House in Charleston, another National Historic Landmark which he owns and restored.[3][8][14][15]
The mansion was donated in December 2008 to the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, a foundation established by Jenrette to: "Preserve, protect and open to the public examples of classical American residential architecture, fine and decorative arts of the first half of the 19th century."[6]
In 2012 the "Friends of Millford" was formed as a group of supporters who appreciate the site and are interested in preserving its legacy for future generations.
Duncan Phyfe furnishings
John and Susan Manning furnished Millford in the then fashionable Grecian style, including a considerable quantity of furniture made by Duncan Phyfe (one of America's most celebrated cabinetmakers). Much of the furnishings are still in the house.[8] The furniture belongs to the last phase of Duncan Phyfe's career. This period was last studied before the 2011–2012 retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[16]
In 1840, John Laurence Manning made a trip to New York City where he likely visited Phyfe. Between 1840 and 1844, the Mannings placed four separate orders with D. Phyfe & Son (the name of Phyfe's company between 1840 and 1847)[17] for a total of 72 objects. More than 50 of these remain at the house today.[18]
This period in Phyfe's work is characterized by the use of plainer bands of highly polished wood, with little carving, the use of volutes, deep cavettocornices, simple square columns, Marlboro feet, and console supports (C-scrolls) that were known in the Phyfe shop simply as "Grecian scrolls". The latter, lifted directly from the design vocabulary of French Restoration furniture of the 1820s, were ubiquitous in Phyfe's Grecian plain-style furniture.[19]
Every room of the mansion was filled with D. Phyfe & Son furniture, as is documented by an 1841 letter and bill of lading from the firm. In most rooms the furniture was in a Grecian plain style. For the double parlor, the Phyfes created something new, blending the Grecian with Gothic and French Restoration-style overtones. This is unusual because the Phyfes did not engage generally with the emerging historical revival styles (Baroque, Gothic, Rococo, etc.) that began in the 1830s.[20]
In the entrance hall, most of the furniture is made of walnut, an economical and durable wood. In the double parlors, however, it is mainly of rosewood, an expensive and exotic wood from South America. The use of luxury woods indicates that the double parlors were a space for formal entertaining, a place for the Mannings to display their taste and wealth.
In the dining room, the elliptical table, matching the shape of the room, is made of mahogany; it has four animal–paw feet and six leaves. The other pieces commissioned included, among others, 14 armchairs in the French Restoration style. It was uncommon to have armchairs at a dining table—usually there were armchairs only at the head and foot of the table, the others being side chairs.
When Richard Jenrette bought the property in 1992, less than half of the original furnishings remained in the mansion. Through research, documentation, and consultations with scholars, carried out over many years, he found and purchased much of the original furniture and returned it to its place. Other pieces were given by the descendants of the two families who had owned the plantation. This laborious process continues and more pieces are expected to be returned in the future.
Millford and its furnishings are remarkable in that the entire house was decorated with furniture commissioned from a single cabinetmaker (something uncommon in those days). It was one of the largest orders ever from D. Phyfe.[21] Most pieces are preserved within the same building they were intended to complement and grace, making it unusual in the US.
Berkeley Plantation, one of the first plantations in America, comprises about 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the banks of the James River on State Route 5 in Charles City County, Virginia. Berkeley Plantation was originally called Berkeley Hundred, named after the Berkeley Company of England. In 1726, it became the ancestral home of the Harrison family of Virginia, after Benjamin Harrison IV located there and built one of the first three-story brick mansions in Virginia. It is the home to two presidents of the United States: William Henry Harrison, and his grandson Benjamin Harrison. It is now a museum property, open to the public.
Pinewood is a town located on South Carolina Highway 261 at the southern entrance to the High Hills of Santee in Sumter County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 538 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Sumter, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Duncan Phyfe was one of nineteenth-century America's leading cabinetmakers.
Richard Hampton Jenrette was an American businessman who co-founded the investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ).
John Lawrence Manning was the 65th Governor of South Carolina, from 1852 to 1854. He was born in Clarendon County. He attended South Carolina College, where he was a member of the Euphradian Society.
Hunter House (1748) is a historic house in Newport, Rhode Island. It is located at 54 Washington Street in the Easton's Point neighborhood, near the northern end of the Newport Historic District.
Oatlands Historic House and Gardens is an estate located in Leesburg, Virginia, United States. Oatlands is operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark. The Oatlands property is composed of the main mansion and 415 acres of farmland and gardens. The house is judged one of the finest Federal period country estate houses in the nation.
Borough House Plantation, also known as Borough House, Hillcrest Plantation and Anderson Place, is an historic plantation on South Carolina Highway 261, 0.8 miles (1.3 km) north of its intersection with U.S. Route 76/US Route 378 in Stateburg, in the High Hills of Santee near Sumter, South Carolina. A National Historic Landmark, the plantation is noted as the largest assemblage of high-style pisé structures in the United States. The main house and six buildings on the plantation were built using this technique, beginning in 1821. The plantation is also notable as the home of Confederate Army General Richard H. Anderson.
Hampton Plantation, also known as Hampton Plantation House and Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, is a historic plantation, now a state historic site, north of McClellanville, South Carolina. The plantation was established in 1735, and its main house exhibits one of the earliest known examples in the United States of a temple front in domestic architecture. It is also one of the state's finest examples of a wood frame Georgian plantation house. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
The Robert William Roper House is an early-nineteenth-century house of architectural importance located at 9 East Battery in Charleston, South Carolina. It was built on land purchased in May 1838 by Robert W. Roper, a state legislator from the parish of St. Paul's, and a prominent member of the South Carolina Agricultural Society, whose income derived from his position as a cotton planter and slave holder. The house is considered to be an exemplar of Greek Revival architecture, built on a monumental scale. Although there are now two houses between Roper House and White Point Garden to the south, for a decade after its construction nothing stood between the house and the harbor beyond, making it the first and most prominent house to be seen by visitors approaching Charleston by sea.
South Carolina Highway 261 (SC 261) is a 116.960-mile (188.229 km) state highway in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It travels between Yauhannah in Georgetown County to Kershaw County. Although the highway covers more east–west distance, it is signed north–south.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church is an historic Episcopal church located in the High Hills of Santee west of Pinewood, South Carolina. On January 20, 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as St. Mark's Church.
The Stateburg Historic District is a historic district in Stateburg, in the High Hills of Santee area near Sumter, South Carolina in the United States. It includes two National Historic Landmarks, Borough House Plantation and the Church of the Holy Cross, and at least eight contributing properties within its boundaries. On February 24, 1971, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district extends north and east of the town of Stateburg as far north as Meeting House Road and as far east as South Carolina Highway 441, covering an area of 5,066 acres (20.50 km2).
The High Hills of Santee, sometimes known as the High Hills of the Santee, is a long, narrow hilly region in the western part of Sumter County, South Carolina. It has been called "one of the state's most famous areas". The High Hills of Santee region lies north of the Santee River and east of the Wateree River, one of the two rivers that join to form the Santee. It extends north almost to the Kershaw county line and northeasterly to include the former summer resort town of Bradford Springs. Since 1902 the town has been included in Lee County.
Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site is a historic site in Union County, South Carolina, that preserves the home of William H. Gist (1807-1874), the 68th governor of South Carolina. Gist helped instigate a Secession Convention in South Carolina, which led to the creation of the Ordinance of Secession that preceded the Civil War.
Millwood is the site and ruins of an antebellum plantation house at 6100 Garner's Ferry Road, Columbia, South Carolina. Owned by Colonel Wade Hampton II and his wife Ann Fitzsimmons Hampton, it was the boyhood home of their first son Wade Hampton III and other children. He later became a Confederate general and later, South Carolina governor, and U.S. Senator.
Antebellum architecture is the neoclassical architectural style characteristic of the 19th-century Southern United States, especially the Deep South, from after the birth of the United States with the American Revolution, to the start of the American Civil War. Antebellum architecture is especially characterized by Georgian, Neo-classical, and Greek Revival style homes and mansions. These plantation houses were built in the southern American states during roughly the thirty years before the American Civil War; approximately between the 1830s to 1860s.
Latta Place, also known as Latta House, is a historic house located in Huntersville, North Carolina near Mountain Island Lake. Built in about 1800 in a Federal style, the plantation also contains some elements of Georgian design, including the house's main staircase.
Lewisfield Plantation is a historic plantation house located near Moncks Corner, Berkeley County, South Carolina. It was built about 1774, and is a 2 1/2-half story clapboard dwelling. It is supported by a high brick foundation that encloses a raised basement. It has a five bay wide verandah supported by six slender Doric order columns. Records show over 100 slaves were held in bondage on the plantation as of 1835.
Robert Donaldson Jr. was an American banker and patron of the arts.
1 2 "Millford Plantation". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
↑ Peter M. Kenny, "Changing Perspectives on an Iconic American Craftsman, Duncan Phyfe at the Metropolitan Museum". Antiques and Fine Art magazine, winter 2012 anniversary issue: p. 116.
↑ Kenny (2012), "Changing Perspectives", pp. 119-120.
↑ Peter M. Kenny. Lecture held at Millford Plantation on April 1, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
