City Directories and History: The Mikell family arrived on Edisto Island before the close of the seventeenth century and were well-established planters before I. Jenkins Mikell built Peter’s Point plantation house in 1840. Situated overlooking St. Helena Sound at the junction of St. Pierre’s Creek and Fishing Creek, the house possesses a picturesque view and a commanding setting. The site also marks the point of Lafayette’s departure from the island in 1826. The architectural design of the structure combines the style of the early Edisto Island plantation home and the Greek Revival style of the Charleston area in this period. The two-story rectangular dwelling has a low gabled roof with a pedimented boxed cornice and two five-flue chimneys which are offset from the ridge of the roof. It is supported by a high foundation of brick and tabby. The front façade is sheltered by a double piazza. Eight Tuscan columns of slender proportions are evenly spaced on both levels and support the double piazza. A balustrade encloses the piazzas of the façade. Mikell, a Princeton graduate, became one of the wealthiest planters in South Carolina; however, he shunned political life, serving only as a magistrate and commissioner of the public schools of Edisto. One of his projects was the landscaping of the grounds surrounding the house. Listed in the National Register June 19, 1973.
“The Peter’s Point Plantation consisted of 2,200 acres of land by 1860. Its estimated annual production of 70,000 pounds of ginned cotton made it one of the largest producers of sea island cotton in the United States. It seems to have been representative of the large self-sufficient southern plantation with its 225 slaves working the cotton fields as well as cultivating grains and vegetables and tending livestock needed for the subsistence of the plantation population.”
Click here to see added information. Also see Charleston Before 1945 at: Peter’s Point
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