Coffin Point Plantation
National Register Listing
Street Address:
3 mi. E of Frogmore at NE end of Seaside Rd. on St. Helena Island (Beaufort County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817707023
Description and Narrative:
Coffin Point Plantation, once a prosperous Sea Island plantation was also a center of activity during the Port Royal Experiment in the early years of the Civil War. Coffin Point is a two-story clapboard structure with raised basement. Although the exact date of construction is unknown, Coffin Point possesses characteristics of the Federal style of architecture and is believed to have been constructed ca. 1801. As is traditional of many early nineteenth century houses in the sea islands, the foundation of Coffin Point is of tabby. The home features semi-elliptical doorways and dormer windows, a hip roof with dentil cornice, hooded chimneys, two cisterns in the basement, denticulated mantels, original pine floors, and a staircase with scroll pattern. The surroundings feature an avenue of oaks one-half mile long. The home overlooks St. Helena Sound. Ebenezer Coffin was born in Boston in 1763 and moved to South Carolina and settled at Coffin Point. His son Thomas Astor Coffin was in charge of the plantation until Union occupation of St. Helena in 1861. Prior to the Civil War Coffin Point was a well-known cotton plantation on the Carolina coast, having a reputation of being well managed and prosperous. In the early 1890s U.S. Senator James Donald Cameron, a Republican from Pennsylvania and Secretary of War during the Grant administration, bought Coffin Point. Listed in the National Register August 28, 1975.
Period of Significance:
1865;1801;19th century;20th century
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture;Agriculture;Literature;Military;Politics/Government;Social History;Ethnic Heritage: Black
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
August 28 1975
