I Want To Go To There - Kensington Mansion

  Last week I was pulling weeds in my backyard and instead of going inside to get a drink I managed to just suck some water right out of the air . . . and you know what that means - it's summer in South Carolina! No school, and lots of vacation days, means more time for you to check out some pretty interesting historic sites across the state. Unfortunately, it's easy to miss out on some of the smaller places among more popular sites like Drayton Hall, Historic Brattonsville and the marketing juggernaut that is Biltmore Estate. So, this summer I'll be doing a series of posts highlighting a few less well-known sites in the hopes that you'll pack up the kids, car, and whatever else you need for a road trip, and visit some of these off the beaten places. Seriously, you won't regret it.





OMG cat loves Italianate Revival architecture.

 
  First up is Kensington Mansion in Eastover, SC. It is only about a 45 minute drive from Columbia - an easy day trip if you live in the midlands. If not, it is well worth the drive time to check out this unique example of an antebellum plantation house. Completed in the 1850s, Kensington Mansion has 29 rooms with 12,000 sq ft of floor space. It was built in the Italianate Revival style (and that is pretty much the last architectural term I’ll be using in this post because my knowledge base in that particular area is kiddie pool shallow). The house is a unique departure from most other South Carolina plantation homes, which is why I am not even going to post pictures of the interior because I don’t want to spoil anything for you. You can, however, expect to make the following noises as you walk through the house: “Guh”, “Whaaa”, “Ohmygah”, and “Ooooooo”.


Anyway, on to my favorite part - the history!


  As early as 1787, the property was owned by the Singleton family and was originally named Headquarters Plantation. The land was passed down through several generations until Matthew Richard Singleton inherited it. Matthew married Martha Rutledge Kinloch and they renamed the plantation Kensington, after Martha's childhood home in Georgetown, SC. According to the 1850 Federal Census Slave Schedule Matthew Singleton owned close to 200 slaves, which meant he was doing to very, very well for himself. Construction on the mansion started in 1851 and was completed a few years later, but Matthew never got to live in his new mansion because he died before it was finished. His wife and children, however, moved in and continued to live at the new house until after the Civil War.

  Matthew’s sons, Richard and Cleland, split the property between them and the land was eventually sold to Robert Hamer, who also died before he could move in.* Hamer’s wife and children set up house anyway and continued to farm the land. After an attempt by the federal government to use the land as an agricultural cooperative failed, the property was sold to another family who built their own house and used the 12,000 sq ft mansion to store farm equipment, animal feed and fertilizer. For reals. They saw this crazy big mansion and thought, “This will be the perfect place to keep our chicken feed and bags of animal poop”. Anyway, International Paper bought the land in 1981 and instead of just knocking the crumbling old house to the ground, they bankrolled its restoration. The Scarborough-Hamer Foundation worked to outfit the house with period furniture and it is now open to the public for tours.

Before you go:



Rev. Jacob Stroyer

 
  Please take a moment to read some of Rev. Jacob Stroyer’s My Life in the South before you visit (you can read the whole thing here via GoogleBooks). Stroyer was born into slavery at Kensington and his account of growing up as the property of Matthew and Martha Singleton is both awful and inspiring. To be honest, reading Stroyer’s memoir made me think twice about encouraging people to visit Kensington. It feels gross to be hyping how beautiful the place is when Stroyer makes it clear that beauty came from a really terrible place. However, it is important to acknowledge the ugly parts of our past (along with the good) and having historic houses like Kensington open to the public certainly helps us remember them. So, I hope you will visit Kensington and enjoy all the beauty it has to offer but I also hope you will remember the hundreds of enslaved workers who made it all possible.




If you - I mean when you go:

  Kensington is not open for tours 5 days a week, so make sure to check out their website for tour times and prices.

  Please note: they will be closed for tours in August so you only have about 6 weeks to get your visit in before summer ends. What are you waiting for?!





* It’s the Kensington Curse!


To learn more about Kensington check out these helpful sites:

Official Website: http://www.kensingtonmansion.org/index.htm

SC Plantations Website: http://south-carolina-plantations.com/richland/kensington.html