February 2019

I'm running out of ideas of places for us to go for our Valentine's Date.  It didn't help that it seemed to rain constantly around Valentine's Day this year.  But I planned a trip for us to the South Carolina Botanical Gardens and historical houses on the campus of Clemson University.  Although it was overcast, it didn't rain at all while we were there. The gardens weren't very exciting.  Some daffodils and a few trees were blooming.  But the historical houses were fun to see.  There's also a small geological museum and art exhibit.

 From the Clemson University website: Hanover House was built in 1716 for French Huguenot Paul de St. Julien in Berkeley County, S.C. St. Julien honored his French heritage in the mortar of one chimney where he inscribed, “Peu a Peu,” from the French proverb, “Little by little the bird builds its nest.”

The house’s original design featured balanced symmetry, a gambrel roof, dormers and French details. The siding was hewn from black cypress timbers and massive triple-flute chimneys accommodated its roomy raised basement with warming kitchens.

The house remained in the St. Julien and Ravenel families for nearly 150 years. In the 1940s, progress threatened to destroy the home, as it was in the path of the man-made Lake Moultrie. However, the Historic American Buildings Survey of the Santee-Cooper basin noted that Hanover was of national significance. Thus, Hanover was moved 250 miles north to the campus of Clemson University, home to the state’s architecture school. It was relocated to the South Carolina Botanical Garden in 1994 and now overlooks an heirloom vegetable garden.

Hanover House serves as a monument of an early French Huguenot colonial structure and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Spartanburg Committee of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America aided in furnishing Hanover as a museum with 18th and 19th century artifacts.

 We ate lunch by the bird station in the garden.  It was fun to see all the different birds.

 Can you imagine living with 12 kids in this cabin?!?!?

 From the Clemson University website: Fort Hill was the home of John C. Calhoun, South Carolina’s pre-eminent 19th century statesman, from 1825 until his death in 1850. The antebellum plantation home, office and kitchen are furnished mostly with family artifacts.

It was through a succession of Calhoun-Clemson women that Fort Hill came into Thomas Green Clemson’s possession. In 1888, Clemson bequeathed the Fort Hill plantation and cash to the state of South Carolina for the establishment of a scientific and agricultural college. He willed that Fort Hill “shall always be open for the inspection of visitors.”

I didn't know much about Calhoun so I did some more research when I got home.  He was a member of the House of Republicans, the Secretary of War under James Monroe, a senator from SC, Vice President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson and Secretary of State under Tyler and Polk.  According to Wikipedia "His beliefs and warnings heavily influenced the South's secession from the Union in 1860–1861", even though he had died in 1850.

 From the Fort Hill Brochure: The U.S.S. Constitution sideboard was made of mahogany from the famous frigate, also known as “Old Ironsides,” and was a gift to Secretary of War Calhoun from U.S. Senator Henry Clay

 According to the tour guide (a student at Clemson) these were the official dinnerware of Andrew Jackson's presidency.

 From the brochure:  Clemson prized his Windsor chair, which had belonged to George Washington.

A souvenir of Clemson’s diplomatic career is the red chair and footstool given to him by King Leopold I of Belgium

 Andrew Pickens Calhoun’s bedroom above the parlor displays the furnishings of his grandson who married Floride Isabella Lee Calhoun, the only grandchild of Thomas and Anna Clemson. The paintings are part of Thomas G. Clemson’s European art collection and include a painting of Queen Victoria with her King Charles spaniels and a copy of Beatrice Cenci.