Brookland Plantation – Edisto Island – Charleston County

— Brookland Plantation © Brandon Coffey, 2014 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – St. Pierre Creek, Edisto Island, St. John's Colleton Parish, Charleston County

  Located off Laurel Hill Road, southwest of SC 174
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Hill Tract, Brooklands, Brooklines
  

• Current status – Privately owned
  

— Pond View at Brookland Plantation © Brandon Coffey, 2014 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence
  

• Mid-1700s – Brookland was a pre-Revolutionary indigo plantation owned by the Joseph Jenkins family (1, p. 2).
  

• ? – House built
  

  There was a house on the property when Joseph Jenkins owned Brookland (1, p. 2)

• 1800-1807 – Current house built (1, p. 2)
  

  Builders and exact date of construction unknown (1, p. 2)
  

• 1846 – Property passed to Henry Seabrook.
  

• 1868 – Henry Seabrook went bankrupt after the Civil War.
  

• 1872 – Samuel L. Bennett, county auditor, sold the house and 300 acres to H.E. Young and James Lowndes for $471.
  

• 1928 – Mary P. Bailey purchased the eastern portion, including the house, from Arthur R. Young and Joseph R. Young.
  

• 1958 – The Reverend Ralph Wentling bought the property and started a boys' home. It was known as the Brookland Home for Boys.
  

• 1968 – The Brookland Home for Boys moved to a 212-acre tract near Orangeburg.
  

  Dr. Charles C. and Betty T. Wannamaker purchased the plantation.
  

• 2000 – The film The Legend of Bagger Vance was released. In it, Brookland serves as the home of Matt Damon's character.
  

• 2001 – Brookland Plantation, LLC (owned by Robert Chesnut, Pat Barber, and Cas Danielowski) bought the property and restored the house. The purchase price was $1.75 million.
  

• 2006 – Thomas Ravenel purchased the property (4).
  

• 2009 – Ravenel put Brookland Plantation up for sale with an asking price of $4.275 million (4). The plantation now consists of 60 acres.
  

• 2015 – Ravenel continues to own Brookland Plantation.
  

Land

• Number of acres – 16.7 acres in 1987 (1, p. 2)

• Primary crop – Indigo during the Revolutionary War period, then Sea Island cotton before the Civil War (1, p. 2)
  

• The well-preserved gravestones of Joseph Jenkins, his wife Martha Grimball Jenkins, and their infant son, Joseph, remain standing in the woods on the property (1, p. 2).
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• The 3,440-square foot, two-story framed house has weatherboard siding (1, p. 1).
  

• Brookland once featured a two-story portico with four columns, but only the corner ones remain (5).

— Brookland Plantation © Gazie Nagle, 2013 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1987
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
   

3. Claude Henry Neuffer, editor, Names in South Carolina, Volume I through 30 (Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company)
    Order Names in South Carolina, Volumes I-XII, 1954-1965
    Order Names in South Carolina, Index XIII-XVIII
   

4. Katy Stech, Ravenel Lists his Lowcountry Properties for Sale (Charleston, SC: The Post and Courier, July 20, 2009)
   

5. Charles Spencer, Edisto Island, 1861 to 2006: Ruin, Recovery and Rebirth (England: The History Press)
    Order Edisto Island, 1861 to 2006: Ruin, Recovery and Rebirth