Carter Hill
National Register Listing
Street Address:
10 mi. S of Camden, E of SC 521, Camden, SC City Vicinity (Kershaw County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817728016
Description and Narrative:
Carter Hill plantation complex was once part of a large tract called Mill Tract Plantation, which began to be consolidated by the Boykin family in the late eighteenth century. The Carter Hill tract and surrounding acreage was acquired by Burwell Boykin by 1819, and was added to his acreage along Swift Creek. The Boykin family did not make Carter Hill their home until 1875; prior to this the tract was managed by an overseer employed by the Boykin family. It is a prime example of the system of management of large plantations in South Carolina during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when overseers often were given primary responsibility for smaller tracts within the larger plantation, or responsibility for an entire plantation in a different part of the state. Carter Hill is a well-preserved example of a plantation complex. The overseer’s house is extant, now incorporated into the main house built in ca. 1875. The overseer’s house built in ca. 1840, provides insight into the status of the overseer in the plantation system. It was a one room house, simply designed, but well-built and comfortable. It incorporated architectural elements fashionable when it was built—the Greek Revival influence can be seen in the cornice returns and gable-end configuration. The main house reflects the rural Victorian architectural style predominant after the Civil War. The outbuildings (including a log building, a frame building, a pump house, a smokehouse, a dovecote, a hen house, and a barn) constructed at various times during the nineteenth century, provide insight into the functions of a working plantation and the buildings necessary in running it. Listed in the National Register September 24, 1992.
Period of Significance:
1840;circa 1875
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
September 24 1992
