The Rhett House Inn, is historic building in

Beaufort, South Carolina Beaufort ( , different from that of Beaufort, North Carolina) is a city in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States, and its county seat. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston, South Carolina ...

. It is significant as the home of Thomas Moore Rhett and his wife, Caroline Barnwell, who were early pioneers in South Carolina in the 1800s. The Inn is in the Point neighborhood, which is part of the Beaufort Historic District.

History

Construction records date the house to ca. 1820. Thomas Moore Rhett and his wife, Caroline Barnwell, owned the two-story,
"Thomas Moore Rhett House, "The Rhett House Inn""
Federal and

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

style mansion up to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. The building, which initially had eight rooms, served as a summer home. Rhett owned a plantation on the

Ashepoo River The Ashepoo River is a short blackwater river in South Carolina, United States. It rises in a confluence of swamps south of Walterboro, flows in a southeast direction and empties into Saint Helena Sound at . The entire course of the river lies ...

with enslaved

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

living and working on the property. In 1850, Rhett advertised in ''The Charleston Mercury'' giving a fifty dollar reward for the apprehension and delivery to the nearest jail of a slave named Sampson. Rhett died on December 26, 1860. The Inn sits on a masonry basement with a porch on the south and west sides and faces the Beaufort River. Greek Doric

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s support the upper and lower porches. After the Civil War, the Thomas Rhett House was a hospital for injured soldiers. Changes to the house were made in the late 1800s. From the 1900s until the mid-1930s, the Thomas Rhett house was a private home. At the end of the 1930s, the Tucker family bought the house, and it was known as The Tucker Inn. Jane Ridings, the eldest daughter of the Tuckers, bought the Inn from her parents and changed the name to Cherokee Inn. In the 1950s, she sold the inn to

Best Western Best Western International, Inc. owns the Best Western Hotels & Resorts brand, which it licenses to over 4,700 hotels worldwide. The franchise, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, includes more than 2,000 hotels in North America. ...

, which sold it to Alcoa South Carolina, a subsidiary of

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

, to be used as corporate offices during the development of the Dataw Island Resort. Steve and Marianne Harrison bought the inn after a vacation in the area in 1986. The couple then renovated the building. It has been used as a hotel since 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhett House Inn Buildings and structures in Beaufort, South Carolina Hotel buildings completed in 1820 Hotels established in 1820 1820 establishments in South Carolina

History

See also

References