 outh Carolina's oldest plantation house, along with remnants of colonial rice fields and cemeteries
along the Cooper River, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, thanks in large
part to the efforts of Historic Charleston Foundation working in conjunction with other public and private
entities. The National Park Service announced the listing of the Cooper River Historic District at the
"national level of significance."
| The Cooper River served as the main transportation route for people and goods and played a vital role in rice production. |
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National Register listing makes property owners in the district eligible for financial incentives, including
tax credits created by the S.C. Rehabilitation Incentives Act of 2002, which provides state income tax incentives
for the rehabilitation of owner-occupied residences and income-producing buildings listed in the National Register.
National Register listing does not bring additional regulations to the area.
The Berkeley County district includes 30,020 acres centered along both sides of a 25-mile stretch of the east branch
of the Cooper River. The river served not only as a transportation route for people and goods, but also played a vital role in rice production.
The buildings, structures, sites and landscape features illustrate the changing character of the area from an 18th
century plantation society based on rice cultivation to the purchase of these plantations by wealthy Northerners who
established retreats for hunting and other leisure activities in the early 20th century.
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Mulberry Plantation still retains approximately 850 acres of land along the Cooper River and
includes the plantation house, c.1711, former rice fields, restored slave house, and a Loutrel Briggs garden. |
Fine examples of architecture found in the district from the Colonial period through the modern era include
Middleburg Plantation (1697), the oldest surviving plantation house in South Carolina; the Georgian style
Pompion Hill Chapel (1763); the Federal style Quinby Plantation House (c.1792), the Tudor Revival style complex at
Richmond Plantation (ca. 1927); and the International style buildings at Mepkin Plantation (ca. 1938).
| The Cooper River served as the main transportation route for people and goods and played a vital role in rice production. |
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The district's rice fields, canals, dams, reservoirs, causeways, roads and cemeteries are tangible evidence of the
rice plantation economy and the work of thousands of slaves who provided labor for the plantations. The area also
contains several significant archaeological sites; digs here have given scholars new insights into the Colonial,
antebellum and post-Civil War history of white and black inhabitants of the region.
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