“An early and beautiful example of a French Huguenot cabin”
City Directories and History: This historic home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Images courtesy of the Blythe Collection, ca. 1982
The Guillebeau House is a good example of Southern eighteenth-century pioneer construction. Built on the double pen house plan developed extensively in the South, the house has one exterior 
chimney and two front entrances. The shed roof porch across the front, originally open, has been enclosed at either end to provide additional rooms. The walls are constructed of hand-hewn logs with mortise and tenon joints with filling between the logs. French Huguenot settler Andre Guillebeau (1739-1814) built this house shortly after his arrival at New Bordeaux, an upcountry Huguenot settlement, in August 1764. He served in the American militia under Captain Joseph Bouchilon during the American Revolution. The house was subsequently owned by Andre’s son Peter (1769-1854) and then by Peter’s son Peter (1812-1891). According to Peter’s will there was a 400-acre tract surrounding the house. The family cemetery is included in the nominated acreage. The house was moved to Hickory Knob State Park ca. 1983. Listed in the National Register March 7, 1973. [Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History]
“New Bordeaux and New Rochelle derive from Huguenot immigrants who took up land in Abbeville District in 1764 and attached names to Abbeville communities in reminiscence of the cities in France from which they came. New Bordeaux, in McCormick County near the junction of Long Cane Creek and Little River, still exists as Bordeaux; there is no longer a New Rochelle. It is well known also that Abbeville as a county identification is due to these same Huguenot colonists. Flatwoods has a topographical rather than historical background. Originally it covered a vaguely defined territory of flat, timber-covered lands, described in 1848 as “drained by Little River and its branches . . . toward the west Calhoun’s Creek and its tributaries . . . and thence to the mouth of Rocky River on the Savannah.” In other words, the designation applied to a considerable part of the county bordering on the Savannah River. Today the name has been largely localized to a single community Flatwoods, half way between Calhoun Falls and McCormick, in both Abbeville and McCormick counties.”
Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC
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OTHER IMAGES – S.C. Dept. of Archives and History
