Rural Hall Drive
City Directories and History: This house is significant as a particularly intact example of the main houses of Georgetown County rice plantations and for its association with Rural Hall, one of several plantations on the Black River. Though the plantation was known as Rural Hall as early as 1803 the main house was built ca.1850 by Christopher James Atkinson. Atkinson produced 180,000 pounds of rice with 70 slaves in 1850 and 270,000 pounds of rice with 98 slaves in 1860. At his death the plantation passed to his niece, Margaret Thompson, who was the wife of Stephen W. Rouquie. Rouquie, a Georgetown merchant, served as an officer in the “Georgetown Rifle Guards,” Company A of 10th South Carolina Infantry during the Civil War. He planted rice at Rural Hall for over thirty years after the war. Rouquie sold the plantation after the storms of 1893 and 1898 destroyed his crops and his rice fields. A notable feature of this house is that it not only has a porch across the main façade facing the river, but it also has an identical porch on the opposite (land) side, which is visible from the road. A small bathroom addition, not visible from the road, projects from the west side of the house. Listed in the National Register October 3, 1988. [Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History]
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