Millford Plantation (also spelled Milford) is a historic
forced-labor farm and
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 on
SC 261
South Carolina Highway 261 (SC 261) is a 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 ...
west of
Pinewood,
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
. It was sometimes called Manning's Folly, because of its remote location in the
High Hills of Santee
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".[National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...]
, it is regarded as one of the finest examples of
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
residential architecture in the United States.
The house has been restored and preserved along with many of its original
Duncan Phyfe
Duncan Phyfe (1768 – 16 August 1854) was one of nineteenth-century America's leading cabinetmakers.
Although he did not create a new furniture style, he interpreted fashionable European trends in a manner so distinguished and particular that ...
furnishings.
History
Millford Plantation's monumental two-story
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
mansion
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...
was built in Clarendon (now
Sumter Sumter may refer to:
People Given name
* Sumter S. Arnim (1904–1990), American dentist
* Sumter de Leon Lowry Jr. (1893–1985), United States Army general
Surname
* Rowendy Sumter (born 1988), Curaçaoan footballer
* Shavonda E. 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. Manning later served as Governor of South Carolina from 1852 to 1854.
The builder, Nathaniel F. Potter of
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
, may have also done the design work.
Its imposing
facade features six large carved
Corinthian column
The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...
s on granite bases that support the
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 ...
. Its 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
Wade Hampton (early 1750sFebruary 4, 1835) was an American soldier and politician. A two-term U.S. Congressman, he may have been the wealthiest planter, and one of the largest slave holders in the United States, at the time of his death.
Biog ...
, one of the largest slave owners in the United States, and his wife, Mary Cantey; she was half-sister of Colonel
Wade Hampton II
Wade Hampton II (April 21, 1791 – February 10, 1858) was an American politician, plantation owner, and soldier in the War of 1812. He was a member of the Hampton family, whose influence was strong in South Carolina politics and social circles fo ...
. 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.
[Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. ''Annual Report,'' 2008: p. 3]
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.
[Smith, Thomas Gordon, "Living with antiques: Millford Plantation in South Carolina", ''Antiques Magazine'', May, 1997.](_blank)
/ref>
Near the end of the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, 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.
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.
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.
On November 19, 1971, Millford Plantation, also called the Governor John L. Manning House, was added 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 ...
and on November 7, 1973, it was declared a National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
,[ and ] due to its historic and artistic importance.
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 ...
is one of three National Historic Landmarks located on SC 261, the Kings Highway, in the High Hills of Santee
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".[Borough House Plantation
Borough House Plantation, also known as Borough House, Hillcrest Plantation and Anderson Place, is an historic plantation on South Carolina Highway 261, north of its intersection with U.S. Route 76/ US Route 378 in Stateburg, in the High Hills ...]
and the Church of the Holy Cross, both in Stateburg.
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
Richard Hampton Jenrette (April 5, 1929 – April 22, 2018) was an American businessman who co-founded the investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ).
Early life
Jenrette was born on April 5, 1929, in Raleigh, North Carolina, the son of ...
. He is one of the founders of the New York investment banking firm, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) was a U.S. investment bank founded by William H. Donaldson, Richard Jenrette, and Dan Lufkin in 1959. Its businesses included securities underwriting; sales and trading; investment and merchant banking; fina ...
, and a collateral descendant of Susan Hampton Manning. He referred to the estate as "the Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...
of my dreams".
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
The Robert William Roper House is an historic house 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 S ...
in Charleston, another National Historic Landmark which he owns and restored.
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."
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
Duncan Phyfe (1768 – 16 August 1854) was one of nineteenth-century America's leading cabinetmakers.
Although he did not create a new furniture style, he interpreted fashionable European trends in a manner so distinguished and particular that ...
(one of America's most celebrated cabinetmakers). Much of the furnishings are still in the house.[''Antiques magazine'', May 1997, "Living with Antiques: Millford Plantation in South Carolina", by Thomas Gordon Smith](_blank)
/ref> The furniture belongs to the last phase of Duncan Phyfe's career. This period was least studied before the 2011–2012 retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
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) for a total of 72 objects. More than 50 of these remain at the house today.
This period in Phyfe's work is characterized by the use of plainer bands of highly polished wood, with little carving, the use of volute
A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. Four are normally to be found on an Ion ...
s, deep cavetto
A cavetto is a concave moulding with a regular curved profile that is part of a circle, widely used in architecture as well as furniture, picture frames, metalwork and other decorative arts. In describing vessels and similar shapes in pottery, ...
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
s, 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
The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history during which the House of Bourbon returned to power after the first fall of Napoleon on 3 May 1814. Briefly interrupted by the Hundred Days War in 1815, the Restoration lasted until the ...
furniture of the 1820s, were ubiquitous in Phyfe's Grecian plain-style furniture.
Every room of the mansion was filled with D. Phyfe & Son furniture, as is documented by an 1841 letter and bill of lading
A bill of lading () (sometimes abbreviated as B/L or BOL) is a document issued by a carrier (or their agent) to acknowledge receipt of cargo for shipment. Although the term historically related only to carriage by sea, a bill of lading may toda ...
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
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
and French Restoration-style overtones. This is unusual because the Phyfes did not engage generally with the emerging historical revival styles (Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
, Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
, Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
, etc.) that began in the 1830s.
In the entrance hall, most of the furniture is made of walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''.
Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...
, an economical and durable wood. In the double parlor
A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...
s, however, it is mainly of rosewood
Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues.
True rosewoods
All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated ...
, an expensive and exotic wood from South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
. 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
Elliptical may mean:
* having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape
** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape
** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform
* characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...
table, matching the shape of the room, is made of mahogany
Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...
; 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.[Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. ''Annual Report, 2008:'' p. 4] Most pieces are preserved within the same building they were intended to complement and grace, making it unusual in the US.
See also
*
* List of National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina
This is a List of National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina, United States. The United States' National Historic Landmark (NHL) program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes buildings, sites, structures, d ...
* St. Mark's Episcopal Church (Pinewood, South Carolina)
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.
History
St. ...
, the parish church for Millford Plantation.
* Plantation complexes in the Southern United States
A plantation complex in the Southern United States is the built environment (or complex) that was common on agricultural plantations in the American South from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything from the main resid ...
References
External links
Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, history & photos of Milford Plantation
Tour of the house video (aired Oct 3, 1994)
Millford Plantation listing within National Historic Landmarks program
Historic and notable landmarks of the U.S.
* ttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/hhhtml/hhTitles225.html Historic American Buildings Survey index for Milford Plantation
South Carolina Plantations listing for Milford Plantation
{{National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
High Hills of Santee
Houses in Sumter County, South Carolina
Houses completed in 1841
Plantation houses in South Carolina
Museums in Sumter County, South Carolina
Historic house museums in South Carolina
National Register of Historic Places in Sumter County, South Carolina
Richard Jenrette