Loch Dhu is a house in northwestern
Berkeley County, South Carolina
Berkeley County is a county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 229,861. Its county seat is Moncks Corner. After two previous incarnations of Berkeley County, the current county was created in 1882. Be ...
about east of
Eutawville, South Carolina. It was built around 1812–1816.
It is located close to
Lake Marion
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
about north of
South Carolina Route 6 on Loch Dhu Lane.
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 v ...
on July 13, 1977.
History
The 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 ...
was probably built by Robert J. Kirk, who was a planter.[ 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 ...
was named Loch Dhu, which is Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
for "black lake" for a dark pond on the plantation.cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
, corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
, and sweet potato
The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...
es.[ Philip Kirk also served in the ]South Carolina General Assembly
The South Carolina General Assembly, also called the South Carolina Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The legislature is bicameral and consists of the lower South Carolina House of Representatives and t ...
from 1854 to 1864.[ He was a surgeon in the ]Confederate Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
and used his plantation to nurse wounded soldiers.[
When Lake Marion was constructed, many old plantation homes were lost to the waters. The Hanover House was moved to Clemson due to its architectural significance. Loch Dhu was on higher ground and survived. It is now on a hill with Lake Marion behind.][
]
Architecture
It is a two-story clapboard
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
house with a 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, ...
. It was built around 1812. The house has a brick foundation and a one-story porch. It has two interior chimneys.[
The front has two closely spaced doors that enter different rooms. There are two nine over nine ]light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...
s on each side. The upper story has five nine over nine lights. The middle window is off center. All the windows on the front elevation have shutters. The side elevations have three nine over nine lights on each level. The lower windows have shutters. The rear elevation has a modern, two-story addition. The clapboard siding has been bricked over.[
The interior plan has four rooms on both levels. The first story has a drawing and dining on the front and smaller rooms in the rear with no central hallway. The upper floor has four rooms with a central hall. The floors in the house are original. The drawing and dining rooms have ]wainscoting
Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials.
Panelling was developed in antiquity to make roo ...
, which is stained in the dining room and painted in the drawing room.
Additional pictures and a sketch of the first floor plan are available.
References
External links
{{Plantation agriculture in the Southeastern United States
Historic American Buildings Survey in South Carolina
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Houses in Berkeley County, South Carolina
National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley County, South Carolina
Plantations in South Carolina
Plantation houses in South Carolina