Oak Island

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Description 

Oak Island, built ca. 1828-31 by William Seabrook, Jr., is significant architecturally and agriculturally as a remaining example of the large antebellum plantation houses on Edisto Island associated with the wealth attained through the production of sea island cotton. Oak Island is a two-and-one-half story, rectangular plan (with projecting two- story rear pavilion), central-hall, frame, weatherboard-clad residence. The gable-end roof is pierced at the rear slope by two, massive, interior chimneys with heavily corbelled caps and necking. The front roof slope has three, symmetrically-placed, gabled dormers. A one-story, six bay, hipped roof porch extends fully across the façade and wraps around the right elevation another five bays. Plain wooden columns support the porch roof; there is a plain balustrade between the columns. The gable ends are pedimented with a flushboard tympanum and two, quarter round windows with fixed shutters. The house was named for the grove of trees around it. The lawns encircling the house in the antebellum period occupied acres, which camellias of every then known species, 1,500 varieties of roses, an apiary and a fish pond in the middle of which there was a latticed house covered with roses. This park-like environment was in 1860, the year of William Seabrook, Jr.’s death, at the center of a 405-acre plantation, on which there belonged 174 slaves. There are no remaining outbuildings or garden buildings extant. Listed in the National Register November 28, 1986. - SCDAH

Tags 

19th Century (37,764)
Brick (42,462)
Built during 1830s (2,706)
Charleston County, South Carolina (211)
Edisto Island MRA (13)
Edisto Island, South Carolina (25)
House (27,633)
Private owner (54,398)
South Carolina (2,153)

Update Log 

• August 19, 2014: Photo imported by Michael Miller
• July 23, 2014: Updated by Michael Miller: Added "Alternate Name" & "Description"

Related landmarks 

• Cassina Point (Adjacent)

Sources 

• Michael Miller - michael_a_miller [at] yahoo [dot] com
• SCDAH
• National Register database - Reference number 86003202 (Search for documents)

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