Drawings lead to new finds at Woodburn

Photo by Sefton Ipock

Ellen Harrison shows a drinking trough and cistern on the Woodburn Plantation property that will be part of a special tour of the historic trails on June 5.

PENDLETON — Woodburn, a four-story plantation house built about 1830, still has some secrets to share.

A recent effort to understand drawings of the property made in the 1960s has led to findings of a service road, part of an underground cistern system, a foundation for a calving barn and a stone trough for horses to drink from.

Ellen Harrison, a volunteer who has been involved in studying the drawings and trail of the property, said Woodburn is part of a complex that included much more than just the home. The drawings “showed a lot more buildings.”

“We were using the drawings to try to find some things,” she said.

The findings show how the plantation farm was operated in the 19th century.

Much of the area is overgrown, but with the help of others, such as a Seneca Boy Scout troop, they were able to cut paths through some of the property and find some original foundations, the cistern and more, Harrison said.

They uncovered Flint Rock Road, which “was used to bring carriages up to the house,” and because it is made of quartz, shines at night to allow riders to see it by moonlight.

A special tour is planned June 5 to show visitors the new findings, and there will be a tour available of the mansion immediately following that, Harrison said.

“We will do the three buildings, then head down the trail,” she said.

The three buildings are John Adger’s log cabin, moved from Anderson to the Woodburn site; tenant cabins; and the Adger Victorian Carriage House, which holds the traveling coach of Thomas Green Clemson.

“We’ll show nine different structures or artifacts” located along the trail, she said.

Some of those artifacts or structures include an old bunkhouse, the foundation of the blacksmith’s barn, the horse barn and the cistern system, which was considered advanced for a house of its era.

“Woodburn is filled with interesting things like that,” Harrison said.

Woodburn, which sits on 10 acres, was built as a summer home by Charles Pinckney and is considered an example of an early 19th-century South Carolina Upcountry plantation house, according to the foundation. It was expanded by the Adger family of Charleston to 18 rooms and farmland totaled about 1,000 acres.

Woodburn is normally open from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays for tours. Ashtabula, another plantation home operated by the foundation, is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

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