“Watch an old building with care: guard it as best you may, and
at any cost, from any influence of dilapidation.”
John
Ruskin
We
headed to Abbeville, South Carolina, a 65 miles drive from Augusta on
back roads on a dreary day. We wanted to check out the mansion we had
seen many times before in Abbeville but never had a chance to see.
When you are at the town square in Abbeville, you can look down Main
Street and see this beautiful building. We drove to the parking
area and went up on the porch. The front door was locked and it was
just after one. We thought it opened then but it was locked up. I
called the number on their web page, and a lady answered. I asked if
they were open and said we were sitting on the front porch on the
rockers. She came a little too fast as we were loving sitting on
the porch looking at the view. She let us in even though they were
not to open till 1:30. She was a good tour guide and we learned a
lot about this property and its history in our hour tour.
This
mansion was built in the 1830’s by David Lesley after he had made a
trip up north and fell in love with this style home. He sent one of
his slaves named Cubic to see the home and come back with plans.
Cubic was educated and a master carpenter and did go and come back
even though he could have been free in the north. He brought back
the plans and helped Leslie design and build this home as a free man.
They built this white Greek Revival two story home just as he wanted
it. David Lesley was a local attorney, judge, and planter in
Abbeville and owned this home till he died in 1855.
Thomas
A. Hoyt bought the house and lived in it till 1859. He worked as a
Presbyterian pastor in Abbeville till he was called to preach in
Louisville, Kentucky. Andrew Simonds, a Charleston banker who
married his cousin – a great-niece of John C. Calhoun, then bought
the property from Hoyt who and sold it to Armistead Burt in 1862.
Armistead
Burt was a member of the US House of Representatives and it was
during his time there, Jefferson Davis’ wife, Varina contacted him
for a safe place to come after leaving Richmond, Virginia. Burt
said for her to come and stay but she stated to him that if the Union
Soldiers know where I’d been staying they may come and burn down
your home. Burt smartly replied to her that it would be for no
greater cause. She did come down and stay for a few days in April
of 1865 before heading further south.
Her
husband, Jefferson Davis, the first and only President of the
Confederate States came to Burt’s home on May 2, 1865 along with
the Secretary of War, John C. Breckenridge, and several military
officers including Braxton Bragg and Basil W. Duke. They gathered
for the last Council of the War meeting and Davis tried to convince
his men to keep on fighting but they said it was time to stop. This
ended the existence of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson
Davis went upstairs to sleep for a few hours before heading to
Washington, Georgia where the papers were signed and finalized.
Davis was later captured on May 10, 1865. It was very surreal being
in and seeing the actual room and where the Jefferson Davis had been
and this historic meeting took place.
Armistead
Burt kept this home till he went bankrupt in 1868 and that is when
the house was bought by James R. Norwood who lived in it till he died
in 1875. His widow and daughter then inherited this fine home. In
1900, James Samuel Stark bought this property for $5,000 and restored
it adding a modern kitchen to the back of the home. When he died the
home went to his daughter, Mary Stark Davis. Mary lived in this
home for years and when she passed in 1987 at 103 years old, she gave
the home to the Historic Preservation Commission to take control of
the property. In her room we were shown some of her clothes from all
the different time periods. She had beautiful gowns and shoes for
the petite woman she was.
There
were two master bedrooms in this house, one for the winter and one
for the summer. The winter room had three interior walls and only a
couple windows. The summer room had a lot of windows and a door to
the outside. The bed that was in the summer room was interesting in
that the headboard of the bed could be removed in the summer to allow
breezes to flow over them and in the winter it could block the
breezes if they slept there. There were steps to get up on the bed
and in one of them, it opened and was a toilet. The rooms were all
spacious with tall ceilings and beautiful furnishing.
The
views from upstairs were lovely looking into downtown Abbeville.
Our tour guide told us to look down two red lights and to know that
Jefferson Davis and his entourage of about 1000 men, came in from
that direction when he arrived on May 2nd. He had dropped
off the Confederate Gold to the Livery Stable on Washington Street
before heading to the mansion.
We
were told this property had many other buildings but now all that
remains are an outside kitchen and servant quarters that was separate
from the main house. This small house was in the exact style as
the one we had seen on our Redcliffe Plantation tour. They cooked
over a huge fire place all year and in the summer months it must have
been brutal with the heat as well as freezing in the winter as you
could see the ground through the cracks in the floor.
This
was another beautiful property and we enjoyed the tour. This is
well worth the $10 tour price and seeing a mansion that was a big
part of our history. To find out more about this historic jewel
check them out: www.burt-stark.com.
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