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
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 ...
displays early
Edisto Island plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
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 Gent ...
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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on June 19, 1973.
History
The plantation was one of the world's largest producers of
Sea Island Cotton 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
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
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
The Supreme Court of South Carolina is the highest court in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The court is composed of a chief justice and four associate justices. 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
In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified land conservation organization called a "land trust", or a governmental (muni ...
on the Peter's Point property.
See also
*
Isaac Jenkins Mikell House
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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