Brooklands Plantation, Edisto Island South Carolina
Brooklands Plantation's significance lies primarily in its architecture. Built ca. 1800-07, this mansion is of an early Greek revival style. The builder is not known at present; however, sources indicate as many as three people as possibilities. These are Ephraim Mikell, husband of Providence Jenkins and father of Isaac Jenkins Mikell of Peter's Point Plantation, or Gabriel Seabrook (1764-1824), and Ephraim Seabrook (died 1846).
It is known, however, that before the Revolutionary War Brooklands (sometimes called Brookland, or Brooklines) was the prosperous indigo plantation of the Jenkins family. An earlier house on or near this site was replaced by the present building. Joseph Jenkins (ca. 1753-1789), son of William and Sarah Sealy Jenkins, and his wife, Martha Grimball (died Feb. 9th, 1785), daughter of Paul Grimball, are buried in a small family graveyard several hundred yards from the house. This Joseph Jenkins probably lived in the earlier house.
The present-day building, like most of the plantations of Edisto, was probably associated with the production of Sea Island cotton in the antebellum and post-Civil War days. Physical remains indicate that the grounds near the house were once elaborately landscaped, including a sunken garden.
Brooklands was owned and lived in for many years by E.M. Bailey, who later sold it to a boy's school. Several years later the house and plantation returned to private ownership.
Building Description
Brooklands is a two-story, weatherboard-clad, hipped-roof, frame residence on a raised, stuccoed brick basement. The building has a rectangular central core with flanking, one-story, one-bay, hipped-roof wings. The facade is dominated by a full-height, hipped-roof portico with two fluted columns with an early form of Greek Corinthian capital (a decorative motif which is carried out on interior moldings also). At one time there were two additional columns on this portico, which were removed for unknown reasons. This portico has undergone several periods of major alteration and the original appearance is not conclusively known. The facade fenestration of the central core is symmetrical. The first story is composed of four French doors with paneled shutters and shelf architraves (all of these doors originally opened onto the portico but the outer two doors no longer have a floored porch). The second story has four windows(a six-over-six, double-hung-sash window above each of the French doors) with louvered shutters. There is a dentil course at the boxed cornice at the eaves of the portico, main core, and wings. Two interior, brick chimneys with necking, rat-tooth course, and triple hoods pierce the main roof. Each wing has a single, exterior, brick chimney with double hood. The interior features door pilasters with an acanthus-leaf motif that reflects the Greek Corinthian columns of the portico. The dining room has a molded ceiling and there are sliding doors between the central parlors. There are no remaining outbuildings associated with the building's period of significance. There are three headstones in a small family graveyard several hundred yards from the main house site (near what is thought to be the site of the original homesite). Joseph Jenkins, his wife, Martha Grimball Jenkins, and an infant son from a later marriage are buried there. There is also evidence of other graves, though there are no other headstones visible.
