City Directories and History: Hunstanton is located just beyond the city limits of Winnsboro, on the Columbia highway. It is built along the Colonial type of architecture which is locally referred to as a “mosquito cottage.” However, this house is no cottage; it contains eighteen rooms in its three stories and wing. The front makes an impressive appearance. A two-storied, gabled portico extends over the center. The pillars of the lower porch, which is just above the ground level, support the floor above. Two flights of semicircular steps at either end lead up to the main floor, the gabled roof of which is supported by four large wooden columns, directly above the massive brick pillars below. The first floor or basement is built of brick while the remainder of the house is constructed of the very best and most durable heart pine. The main body of the house is rectangular and is covered with a gabled roof. To the rear of this is a large back porch and the kitchen wing.
The exact age of the building is not known but it is shown on a map of Fairfield County in 1820. At that time it was the home of Major Robertson, Esquire, who called the plantation SWEET BRIAR. The property remained in the Robertson family until after the Confederate War. At that time it was transferred to the Rabb family. In 1906 it was purchased by C. E. Strange, Sr. Mr. Strange changed the name of the place from SWEET BRIAR to HUNSTANTON, which was the name of the family seat of his people in Norfolk, England. He and his family lived at Hunstanton until 1922.
In 1946 his son, C. E. Strange, Jr., made HUNSTANTON his home. When he acquired the property, it had been suffering from neglect and “absentee ownership.” The new owner had always admired the place and desired to restore it to its former dignity. He did this in an excellent manner, retaining all the charm and refined simplicity that had made it an outstanding landmark. The rooms of the interior are large and square, with high ceilings and fine woodwork. They were all redecorated and furnished with many fine old pieces, family heirlooms. Either Thomas G. Robertson or his father built the house. The family were natives of Halifax County, Virginia, having come there from Wales among the first settlers of Virginia during the Colonial period. Their first home in Fairfield was about one and a half miles from this building, on a country road, between this and the Woodward estate. [Fairfield County Sketchbook – 1963, p. 70 Courtesy of the FCHS]
In the June 2, 1854, issue of The Western Democrat, we find this advertisement soliciting bids for supplying wood at the various stops along the rail line aforesaid. Frederick Nims, general superintendent of the Charlotte & South Carolina Railroad (with an office in Columbia), signed the advertisement and specified the locations of the various wood piles maintained by the railroad:
— Killian’s Mill
— Campbell’s Mill
— Ridgeway (Fairfield Co)
— Simpson’s (Fairfield Co)
— Robertson’s (Fairfield Co) *** This is most likely Hunstanton House
— Winnsboro (Fairfield Co)
— Albion (?)
— White Oak
— Youngsville
— Blackstock
— Cornwell
— Chesterville
— Lewis T. O.
— Smith’s T. O.
— Ebenezer / Rock Hill (Along the Landsford Road, by Wm. B. White, Jr. Vol., I – 2008)
(Sweet Briar) Hunstanton is a significant example of an antebellum Fairfield County planter’s residence on a raised basement. The house features Greek Revival elements including pilasters, entablature, pediment, and proportions. Hunstanton, which appears to have been built ca. 1850, is a one-and-one-half story, weather boarded frame residence on a raised brick basement. The house is rectangular in plan with a rear ell. The roof is end-gabled and there are two interior chimneys. The gable ends are pedimented. The façade features a pedimented porch with paneled wooden pillars connected by a plain balustrade. The porch, which rest on brick piers, shelters the three central bays of the five-bay façade. The section of the façade under the porch is sheathed in flushboard. The central bay contains a double-door entrance with sidelights and transom. Curved granite steps lead from the ground to each side of the porch. An addition on the center of the rear of the house appears to have been an early expansion. Listed in the National Register December 6, 1984. [SCDAH]
Click on the More Information > link to find additional data – A Fairfield County Sketchbook, by J.S. Bolick, 2000 (Courtesy of the FCHS)
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