Peters Point Plantation is a historic structure located on
Edisto Island, South Carolina. It was built by Isaac Jenkins Mikell in 1840 at the intersection of St. Pierre's Creek and Fishing Creek. It is located on the site General
Lafayette used as a departure point from Edisto Island in 1826 during his southern tour.
The
plantation house displays early
Edisto Island 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 ...
and Greek Revival styles. Mikell, a Princeton graduate, was one of the wealthiest
planters
Planters Nut & Chocolate Company is an American snack food company now owned by Hormel Foods. Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentil ...
in the state. He served as a magistrate and commissioner of the public schools of Edisto. The house was listed in 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 June 19, 1973.
History
The plantation was one of the world's largest producers of
Sea Island Cotton
''Gossypium barbadense'' (''gos-SIP-pee-um bar-ba-DEN-see'') is one of several species of cotton. It is in the mallow family. It has been cultivated since antiquity, but has been especially prized since a form with particularly long fibers was ...
and was as large as 2,200 acres in 1860. It had an estimated yearly
ginned cotton production of approximately 70,000 pounds.
Isaac Jenkins Mikell inherited the plantation in 1838 and built the plantation home in 1840. The plantation had been owned by the Mikell family since 1715.
The house is sometimes, less frequently known as the Isaac Jenkins Mikell House, but that name is much more commonly applied to the
Greek Revival house Mikell built in Charleston in 1853. The house displays early
Edisto Island 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 ...
and Greek Revival styles.
It reflects "the transitional stage between the functional plantation house of the early 1800s and the grandiose plantation dwellings of the 1850s."
One of Mikell's projects was the landscaping of the grounds surrounding the house.
On December 21, 2009, the
South Carolina Supreme Court held that a zoning plan created in 2004 that would have allowed up to 55 dwelling units to be built on the same 160-acre tract as Peter's Point Plantation violated Charleston County's master plan.
[Mikell v. County of Charleston, 687 S.E.2d 326 (S.C. 2009).] Edisto Island Open Land Trust now owns a
conservation easement on the Peter's Point property.
See also
*
Isaac Jenkins Mikell House
The Isaac Jenkins Mikell House is an imposing Roman Revival residence in the style of grand Italian villa that was built in 1853–1854 by Edisto Island cotton planter and slave owner1850 U.S. Federal Census-Slave Schedule Isaac Jenkins Mikell ...
References
National Register of Historic Places in Charleston County, South Carolina
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Houses in Charleston County, South Carolina
Cotton plantations in South Carolina
Plantation houses in South Carolina
1840 establishments in Louisiana
Houses completed in 1840
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