Fenwick Hall
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The Fenwick Hall, which is also known as Fenwick Castle, is a
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 ...
built about 1730 on
Johns Island, South Carolina Johns Island is an island in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States, and is the largest island in the state of South Carolina. Johns Island is bordered by the Wadmalaw, Seabrook, Kiawah, Edisto, Folly, and James islands; the Stono ...
, across the Stono River from James Island and Charleston. It is located between River Road and Penneys Creek. It was named to 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 ...
on February 23, 1972.


History

John Fenwick, a brother of the former privateer Robert Fenwick, was from a
county family The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, th ...
in England. He acquired the
plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
on the Stono River by 1721. In 1730, he built the central, rectangular portion of the house. His son, Edward Fenwick, inherited the plantation about 1750. He constructed a
carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open ...
to the west and a stable to the east of the house. He imported and bred English
thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...
horses for racing. He built a track nearby under the current Maybank Highway. During this period, the plantation was called ''John's Island Stud'' as described in Harrison Fairfax's book of the same name. Since Fenwick was a
Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
in the Revolutionary War, the property was confiscated. Some of it was returned by legislation in 1785. In 1787, the plantation was sold to Fenwick's cousin John Gibbes. At this time, the octagonal wing was added. Daniel J. Townsend bought the property in 1840. It stayed in his family until 1876. By 1929, when the house was bought by Mr. and Mrs. Victor Morawetz from Burt Whilden, the house was in ruins. It was restored by Mr. and Mrs. Victor Morawetz with the assistance of the architects Simons and Lapham of Charleston. On May 18, 1938, Mr. Morawetz died, and the house was inherited by his wife who sold it to Mr. Claude Blanchard in 1943. The most recent sale of the house and property was in 2018.


Architecture

It is a
Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
style, two-story brick house on a raised basement. The original section was about by . The
hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
was topped with a
balustraded A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...
deck. The brickwork was
Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...
. The south elevation has reconstructed nine over nine lights with reconstructed shutters. The rectangular section has five bays with a Huguenot floor plan. The south facade entrance comes into a three-bay drawing room on the left. There is a smaller two-bay parlor to the left. The central hall extends to stairs at the back. There is rear rooms on either side of the hallway. There is an entrance to the 1787 octagonal wing in the northwest corner of the parlor. The 1787 two-story wing is eight-sided about by . It has two rooms divided by a staircase. The drawing room is plastered and has reproduction wallpaper. The other rooms on the first floor are wood paneled. There are seven bedrooms on the second floor. The four in the original section are wood paneled. In the 1931 restoration, a veranda was added to the east and a small two-story wing on the west with a kitchen and bedroom and bath. A reconstructed simple entrance with
pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...
and two
engaged An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...
Doric columns replaced a portico that was added in 1787. Over forty additional pictures of the interior and exterior are available. A floor plan, architectural drawings, and more photographs are also available. A
watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
of Fenwick Hall prior to restoration is at the Greenville County Museum of Art. The two-story brick coach house toward the west has been turned into a garage. A similar stable on the east no longer exists. A formal 18th-century garden was laid out in the 1931 restoration.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Charleston County, South Carolina __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Charleston County, South Carolina. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Charleston ...


References


External links

*http://fenwickhall.com/ {{National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Georgian architecture in South Carolina Houses completed in 1730 Houses in Charleston County, South Carolina Plantation houses in South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Charleston, South Carolina 1730 establishments in South Carolina