Features, Mystery Photo

MYSTERY PHOTO: Farm building

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What’s so special about this building and where is it?  Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com — and remember to include your name, home city and contact information. 

Last week’s mystery, “Brick buildings” was pretty easy — a photo of brick slave cabins at the popular Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant.  Reader Daniel Prohaska of Summerville reminds us that the property was placed under a conservation easement in 2019.

Others who identified the picture correctly were:  George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Jay Altman, Susan James, Anthony Lofton and Elizabeth Jones, all of Columbia; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; Thomas Jacobsen of Sitka, Alaska; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Barry Wingard of Florence; Rhetta Mendelsohn and Marian Greely, both of Charleston;  Kevin Mertens of Greenville; Bill Segars of Hartsville; and Irving Rosenfeld of James Island.

Graf shared, “Eight original slave cabins are one of the most unique features of the plantation. The cabins have artifacts and audio exhibits that help depict what daily life was like for the slaves on the plantation.”

Peel added, “It was founded in 1681 when Englishman Major John Boone came to Charleston and established a lucrative plantation and gracious home on the banks of Wampacheone Creek. Originally established to farm cotton, the plantation was sold to brothers Henry and John Horlbeck in 1817 who adapted the plantation to produce and sell bricks for the construction of many downtown Charleston building projects. By 1850, the plantation was producing 4 million bricks per year with the labor of 85 slaves, who were housed in the nine cabins that line Oak Ave., the main entrance road to the plantation. It was common for slaveowners to display their slaves’ cabins in front of a property as a sign of wealth.”

  • Send us a mystery. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)  Send to:  feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission.  Thanks.

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One Comment

  1. Joe Mendelsohn

    Yea, Rhetta.

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