Name/Title
Medway PlantationEntry/Object ID
MEDWAY.01Scope and Content
Medway, built in 1686, only sixteen years after the founding of the colony, and at the time of the National Register nomination was considered the oldest house in South Carolina of record, is in plan and situation typical of the plantation houses to be built in the lowcountry for the next hundred years. (Note: research since the time of nomination has established that the core of the present house at Medway Plantation was built in 1704-1705 by Edward and Elizabeth Hyrne. The house assumed its present arrangement by 1875.) Originating at Medway was the Janus-like scheme, which provides for the house facing both ways with both a river prospect and a landside entrance, a situation common to the region. The house is thought to have been built by Jan Van Arrsens, Seigneur de Weirnhoudt, who led a small company of Hollanders to Carolina. Dutch architecture is most obvious in the stepped gables of the original house, and the influence of Van Arrsen’s architecture has kept the house looking as though it had as good a right to be standing over a canal in the low countries of Holland as beside rice fields in the lowcountry of Carolina. The second story added to the original building copied its stepped gables. In the 19th century Medway enjoyed a sound economic mixture of agriculture and industry by making rice while the weather was hot and brick when it was cold. Brick making was so successful that Medway owner Peter Gaillard Stoney sent thousands of bricks down for the building of Fort Sumter. Additionally, after World War II, the “Medway Plan” was developed here for American cities to adopt and help rehabilitate French towns. Several graves in a small cemetery are also located on the property. (National Register of Historic Places website.)
Six files contain documentation of the easement on the property including related correspondence and Confirmation of Understanding; Part I certification application (National Register); documentation related to the Medway Environmental Trust (Medway Historic Fund) and the Medway Program in Arts and Letters; annual inspection reports, requests for alterations, and correspondence related to the management of the property; paint sample (undated, unattributed); correspondence related to conducting archaeological investigations including Agreement; "Background History of Medway" (Medway Environmental Trust); "Medway Plantation" by Gertrude S. Legendre (1970); "Preserving the Legacy: Medway Plantation on Back River" by Richard Cote; "Medway Plantation, 1686-1980" by Gertrude S. Legendre (1980); excerpts from publications including Charleston Gardens, Plantations of the Carolina Lowcountry (includes architectural drawing), and Historic Ramblin's Through Berkeley; research report on log construction (HCF intern?, ca. 2017); "Landscape and Architectural Documentation" (ICOMOS and HCF interns, 2012) (separate folder); newspaper articles (including DYKYC, 1981); photocopies of plats and maps; history of Pine Grove Plantation (formerly Back River Plantation); Abstract of title for Pine Grove Plantation/Back River Plantation; archaeological reports of Medway Plantation, septic field, main house, Pine Grove, and Cainhoy Pottery Site (Carl Steen) and related correspondence, including SCDAH grant application and "Historical Archaeology at Medway Plantation"; letters from Gertrude S. Legendre related to issues with nearby military installations; documentation related to the Medway Environmental Trust (Medway Historic Fund).
See Easement Documentation Photo Files for easement donation photographs (Exh. B to Deed of Conservation Easement) and Covenant/Easement Inspection Photo Files for inspection photography.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsLexicon
Search Terms
Easement Property, National Register of Historic Places, Medway (S.C.)Archive Details
Archive Size/Extent
Document box containing:
1 Gift Folder
3 Management Folders
2 History/Miscellaneous Folders
1 Medway Environmental Trust FolderArchive Notes
Associated Material: MHSP student graduate thesis: The Best Brick House in All the Country: Documenting the Structural Evolution of Medway by Neal Nickels (Clemson, College of Charleston)
Legendre Papers (Special Collections at College of Charleston)
Level of Description: FolderLocation
Location
Container
Document BoxShelf
Plantations ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentDate
February 7, 2023Relationships
Related Entries
Notes
2004.004.0026, 2008.009.1, 2012.003.06a-b, 2013.002.110, 2013.002.111, 2020.003.2, MEDWAY.02, MEDWAY.03, MEDWAY.04, MEDWAY.05, MEDWAY.06, MEDWAY.07, MEDWAY.08, MEDWAY.09, MEDWAY.10, MEDWAY.11, MEDWAY.12, MEDWAY.13a-b, MEDWAY.14a-c, MEDWAY.15
Related Units of Description: Easement Manager's working files
Cooper River Historic District file (PLANTATIONS.002)General Notes
Note
Notes: Image #1 in this record from Carolina Calendar, 1920 (2005.001.01). Image #2 from easement donation photo file.Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
November 1, 2012Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023