Fenwick Hall has shaped Johns Island for more than 200 years. It sits on the Stono River at the intersection of Maybank Highway and River Road. This property was home to one of the earliest plantations in the Lowcountry, saw the growth of experimental crops like indigo, hosted fields of rice and Sea Island cotton, and witnessed the enslavement of generations. Today, the property is home to the future of Johns Island as new residents move in and begin their own histories.
Fenwick, his family, and the people he enslaved moved to the property. The enslaved workers built his Georgian style home, sculpted the landscape, and provided the labor for all of Fenwick’s businesses.
Over the next 300 years, the property that formed the original acres of Fenwick Hall changed. There were early indigo operations, expansive rice fields, and acres of cotton. It was a local headquarters for the British army during the Revolutionary War and a temporary camp for the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. In the 20th century, a small parcel from the original plantation was home to the Progressive Club, a place of organization during the Civil Rights Movement.
Fenwick Hall cultivated a variety of crops:
The original acres of Fenwick Hall were subdivided. The main house was restored in the 1930s and is currently a private home. The house and adjacent property were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Today the old Fenwick Hall acreage is home to residents from all over the world, as well as families that can trace their history back to early days in the Carolina colony.
two - Building Fenwick Hall >
