Borough House Plantation


Borough House Plantation, also known as Borough House, Hillcrest Plantation and Anderson Place, is an historic plantation on South Carolina Highway 261, north of its intersection with U.S. Route 76/US Route 378 in Stateburg, in the High Hills of Santee near Sumter, South Carolina. A National Historic Landmark, the plantation is noted as the largest assemblage of high-style pisé structures in the United States. The main house and six buildings on the plantation were built using this technique, beginning in 1821. The plantation is also notable as the home of Confederate Army General Richard H. Anderson.

Description and history

The original house built in 1758 served at different times during the American Revolution as headquarters for both British General Lord Cornwallis and Continental Army General Nathanael Greene. The second house was built in 1820 of rammed earth by William Wallace Anderson, M.D. On October 7, 1821, his wife, the former Mary Jane Mackensie, gave birth there to their son, Richard H. Anderson, the future Confederate Army general. Stateburg was originally called Stateborough, and when the town was laid out, Borough House was the only residence in it, hence the name.
In 1850-1852, Dr. Anderson chaired the committee that built the Church of the Holy Cross of rammed earth across the road from Borough Hall. In 1851, Joel Roberts Poinsett, physician, American statesman and botanist, died while visiting Dr. Anderson and was buried in the churchyard across the road.
On March 23, 1972, Borough Hall plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark.