Cedar Grove is a historic

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and e ...

located near Edgefield,

Edgefield County, South Carolina Edgefield County is a county located on the western border of the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 25,657. Its county seat and largest municipality is Edgefield. The county was established on March 12, 17 ...

. It was built between 1790 and 1805, and is a large two-story,

Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

style house with a white clapboard exterior and high gable roof. It features a double-tiered

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

with delicate

Adamesque The Adam style (or Adamesque and "Style of the Brothers Adam") is an 18th-century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as practised by Scottish architect William Adam and his sons, of whom Robert (1728–1792) and James (173 ...

detail. This home has many unusual architectural features including a barrel-vaulted hallway, elaborately carved mantelpieces, and the right front parlor retains an early hand-painted French wallpaper. The property features a landscape of tall cedars, as well as old English boxwoods and traces of an original rose garden like at John Blocker's father's home, the Blocker House. The gardens at Cedar Grove were reputedly laid out by Andre Michaux, the renowned botanist who had designed the gardens at Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina. The famous English boxwoods of Cedar Grove were sold during the Great Depression to the Rockefeller family and placed in the gardens of the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia. Also on the property are the contributing servant's quarters and original kitchen. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1971.

References

* Architecture of the Old South by Mills Lane. 1997 by Beehive Press, Savannah, Georgia. pages 138–139 with photo. * The Story of Edgefield a 2010 publication by The Edgefield County Historical Society. Page 69 with photo. Plantation houses in South Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Federal architecture in South Carolina Houses completed in 1790 Houses in Edgefield County, South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Edgefield County, South Carolina {{EdgefieldCountySC-NRHP-stub