Built around 1785, Hopewell Plantation was home to Revolutionary War hero Gen. Andrew Pickens.

   

Giving a home to S.C. history

By Angela Nixon
Office of Media Relations

Most students are familiar with Fort Hill, the big white house in the middle of Clemson’s campus, if only because they pass by it every day on the way to class. Legacy Day on Friday, Nov. 5, will give students a chance to explore Fort Hill and learn more about Clemson University history. But few students realize that there are two other historic homes on University property, homes that paint a picture of South Carolina’s history.

Hopewell Plantation

Located on the shores of Hartwell Lake, Hopewell was the home of Revolutionary War hero Gen. Andrew Pickens. Clemson acquired the property through a land grant from the federal government in 1954. The house, which was built for Pickens around 1785, served for years as a farm manager’s house on the Clemson Research Farm. About five years ago, the Department of Historic Properties got involved with the house and started creating a plan to preserve it.

“It really is a beautiful site,” said Will Hiott, curator of Fort Hill and historic properties director. “You can really get a feel for what it might have looked like during Andrew Pickens’ time.”

Not only was Hopewell home to Andrew Pickens, who served as a U.S. congressman and commissioner of Indian affairs following the Revolutionary War, it was also home to his children, two of whom also went on to serve South Carolina — Andrew Pickens Jr., a former governor, and Ezekiel Pickens, a former lieutenant governor.

The house also served as the site of treaty signings with many Native American tribes in the region, including the Treaty of Hopewell with the Cherokees in 1785 and the Choctaws and Chickasaws in 1786. These treaties marked a new era of relations between the United States and Native American tribes.

“There really is a rich history at Hopewell, and it’s right in our backyard,” Hiott said.

Thanks to a gift-in-kind from Pickens Roofing, Hopewell now has a new roof, which has helped make the structure watertight. Other recent improvements such as new caulking and paint have enabled Hopewell to better withstand the elements.

Hopewell is not currently open to the public, though Hiott said tours can be given for special groups. Hiott is working with the Historic Properties Alumni Advisory Committee on a plan to preserve the house with the goal of eventually opening it as a heritage tourism attraction.

“We hope one day that Hopewell might be fully restored and become a place to showcase Native American history, Revolutionary era history and the agricultural history of the area and of the University,” Hiott said.

Hopewell is located just off Old Cherry Road, past the Department of Natural Resources office.

Hanover House

Tucked away in the beautiful setting of the S.C. Botanical Garden is Hanover House, the second oldest wooden structure in South Carolina. Built in 1716 in Berkeley County, Hanover was home to French Huguenot Paul St. Julien.

In 1941, the house was moved from the Lowcountry to Clemson College when it was threatened with destruction by the flooding of the Santee-Cooper River Basin to create Lake Moultrie. The house was determined by the Historic American Buildings Survey to be of national significance, so several Clemson faculty members and administrators, including James F. Byrnes, Rudolph E. Lee and Robert Muldrow Cooper, worked to save the house and bring it to campus.

The house was moved to Clemson piece by piece and reassembled in the area where the Hendrix Student Center stands today. In 1994, it was moved to the S.C. Botanical Garden, where it now overlooks an heirloom vegetable garden.

“It really needed more of its own space,” Hiott said. “As campus grew up around it, it became surrounded by residence halls and classroom buildings. It didn’t have the pastoral scene that it really needed to give it a historical feeling or ambiance.”

Today, Hanover House serves as a museum interpreting the life of French Huguenot settlers in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The Spartanburg Committee of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America furnished it with 18th- and 19th-century period artifacts, and Clemson students and faculty in textiles made coverlets, bedding and other fabrics for the house.

“The Hanover House has such a timeless design, and it looks very modern in a lot of ways. It’s a very pure, simple design — a prototype colonial house,” Hiott said.

Hanover House is open to the public from 11 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and from 2 to 4:30 p.m. on Sundays. Special tours for groups of 10 or more can be arranged by appointment during the week.

Fort Hill

Perhaps the crown jewel in Clemson’s historic properties is Fort Hill, the historic home of both John C. Calhoun and Thomas Green Clemson. In his will, Thomas Green Clemson stated that Fort Hill “shall always be open for the inspection of visitors,” so the University has maintained and restored the house since it opened to the public in 1893. Fort Hill is one of the oldest historic house museums in the country and was designated a National Historic Landmark at the same time the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument and Mount Vernon, former home of President George Washington, received the same designation.

“Fort Hill was one of the first 60 buildings to be named a National Historic Landmark, and that shows the significance of the house beyond South Carolina’s borders. It truly is a nationally significant house,” Hiott said. “That’s why we have a very high standard for restoration.”

The house’s first restoration was in the 1930s; the most recent restoration project was completed in 2003.

Fort Hill contains many original furnishings and artifacts, as well as many pieces from Thomas Green Clemson’s own art collection. The museum provides a good picture of Antebellum South Carolina.

“Visitors can come to Fort Hill and see the very artifacts the families used in the house. It’s as accurate a portrayal as we can make it,” Hiott said.

Fort Hill sees about 10,000 visitors a year and is open from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Group tours are given by appointment. Hiott relies heavily on student employees to help things run smoothly in the house.

Junior Ahmad Mikell, a political science major from Allendale, is in his second year working at Fort Hill. He gives tours, researches projects and helps with Historic Properties’ new Facebook page.

Mikell said he enjoys the opportunities his job presents to network with a variety of people, as well as the chance to learn more about the University.

“Learning about Clemson history gives one a greater understanding of why certain things on campus are the way they are,” Mikell said. “Fort Hill links yesteryear to the present, and through some of the documents I’ve examined in my research here, I’ve been able to see how Clemson University has grown from a small agricultural college to a full-fledged university with an emphasis on engineering, architecture and other sciences.”

Clayton Brzezinski, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from the Chicago area, also works at Fort Hill. He said he chose the job because he felt it would give him the chance to enhance his communication skills. Like Mikell, he has enjoyed learning about Clemson history through his job.

“I feel like I have a deeper-rooted connection to the University now,” Brzezinski said. “Working here, you have an appreciation for being part of the progression of a changing university. You feel like you’re a part of that history.”

Hiott said that hundreds of students have worked in Fort Hill over the years, some of whom have gone on to careers in history and historic preservation.

Events like the upcoming Legacy Day give students, faculty, staff and the community another reason to visit the historic home.

“That’s the fun thing about Legacy Day. Last year, we had hundreds of students walking through the house,” Hiott said. “We want students to understand that there actually was a man named Thomas Green Clemson, that he lived in a big, white house in the center of campus, that he was a diplomat to Belgium, served in the country’s first agriculture department, was related to John C. Calhoun and that he wanted to leave his house open for students to visit.”

Legacy Day will be from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5. The event will include tours and a trivia scavenger hunt through the house and a chance for students to leave their mark in Fort Hill by signing a special photo commemorating the day.

Copies of the biography of Thomas Green Clemson will be available for sale at the event. The day will conclude with a ceremony to dedicate a new memorial in the Fort Hill Legacy Society, which is located on the home’s grounds.