Peachtree Plantation, South Santee River, McClellanville, Charleston County, SC

2014 Leicester B. Holland Prize, Entry
Significance: Located in the St. James Santee Parish along the South Santee River, Peachtree Plantation stands as a ruin. Peachtree Plantation was once a two-story dwelling owned by the Lynch family, prominent rice planters and politicians in colonial South Carolina. Constructed between 1760 and 1762, Peachtree Plantation is a piano-noble style, Georgian Palladian house, with a raised English basement. Despite its current physical state, the house would have been one of the finest plantation dwellings in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The Peachtree tract was initially used as an indigo plantation soon converted to rice when the demand for indigo waned.

The tract is particularly significant as the site where rice production was revolutionized with the invention of the water-powered rice mill. The house was built for Thomas Lynch Sr., a prominent wealthy planter and politician. The Lynch family was rewarded a tract of land in the Carolina Colony by King George II when they converted to the Church of England from Roman Catholicism. Lynch gifted the house to his son, Thomas Lynch Jr. for his wedding in 1772. Both of the Lynch men played an active role in the events preceding the American Revolution. Thomas Lynch Jr. was the second youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence at twenty-six years of age. Although the house lies in ruins, as result of a fire in 1840 and weathering multiple storms and neglect, substantial physical evidence remains that sheds light on the appearance and architectural significance of the structure.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2028
Survey number: HABS SC-882
Building/structure dates: 1760-1762 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1840-1846 Demolished