Abandoned Plantation House in SC

Zante Plantation, Fort Motte South Carolina

Date added: February 19, 2024 Categories: South Carolina House Plantations & Farms

Zante has been the home of several important South Carolina families, its history reaching back to the late 18^th Century when Peter Manigault acquired the property.

In 1771 Peter Manigault, Speaker of the Commons House of Assembly, began acquiring property in the area known today as Calhoun County. (Manigault belonged to one of the wealthiest and most influential French Huguenot families in the province of South Carolina and acquired large tracts of property throughout the province.) By his death in 1773, he had assembled a plantation consisting of 2,224 acres. Manigault's sons, Joseph and Gabriel, inherited their father's estate, including this Calhoun County property.

In 1788, Joseph and Gabriel Manigault divided their inheritance. The lands in the present-day Calhoun County area became the property of Joseph. In 1809 Joseph sold the property to Major William Elnathan Haskell, a noted Revolutionary War leader. According to tradition, there was at this time a structure on the Manigault property which Haskell moved to the present site of Zante. (Broken bricks, plaster and other articles can still be found at the place called "Manigault" which coincides with the traditional location of the structure.) Also suggestive of an earlier structure are portions of Zante's foundations which appear to be of an earlier construction date.

The Haskells called the plantation "Zante" and it remained in their possession at least through 1830. In 1823 Charles Thomas Haskell, son of William Elnathan Haskell and a student at Harvard, listed his address as Zante Plantation, St. Matthew's Parish. (It is interesting to note that Zante is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. Meaning "wooded" and mentioned by Homer, it was regarded as a place of beauty and pleasant living.)

Although original records were destroyed during the mid-19^th Century, it is known that Zante became the property of the Trezevant family in 1851 (being a wedding gift to Elizabeth Baker Trezevant from her father). It remained in this family until 1975.

Zante Plantation House is an example of the progression of the Carolina up-country farmhouse from a simple cottage into a more imposing structure. The typical plan of one room on either side of a wide hall on two floors with a one-story veranda on both the front and rear elevations has here been extended to include a full basement, two rooms of grand proportions on either side of the hall on both main floors, and a large attic with gable and dormer windows. The two chimneys servicing the eight fireplaces are of massive proportions and are located in the interior of the house.

Not only are the rooms of Zante more refined in scale and proportion than earlier houses of the style, but also are more delicate in architectural detailing. The curves of the elliptical fanlight and interior arches are accentuated with keystones and pilasters. Interior paneling below windows and in doors display delicate moldings; door and window jambs are embellished with fluted pilasters. The baseboards and hearths of the first-floor rooms are marbleized, and the doors are feather-grained. The mantels on both floors further depict the transition from the Georgian into the Greek Revival period with the delicate elaboration of various moldings on the classical mantel configuration.

Zante has been the home of several prominent South Carolinians. After the Revolution, William Elnathan Haskell, major in the Massachusetts Continental line, settled in South Carolina, marrying into one of the state's most noted families. (His wife, Charlotte Thomson, was the daughter of Col. William Thomson of Revolutionary War fame.) Haskell's descendants became equally outstanding. The Cyclopedia of Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas states "Among the names conspicuous in the annals of South Carolina, there are but few connected with more honorable fame than that of Haskell."

Haskell's son, Charles Thomson Haskell, represented Abbeville County in the South Carolina House of Representatives between 1850 and 1851. In 1830 he married Sophia Lowell Cheves and for a while they resided at Zante. Their son, Alexander C. Haskell, became a Colonel in the Confederacy and a South Carolina Supreme Court Justice.

Later residents of Zante, the Trezevant family, were also noted as prominent South Carolinians.

Building Description

Zante is a two-and-one-half-story frame structure built upon stucco-over-brick foundations approximately seven feet high. It is not known exactly when Zante was constructed; however, architectural analysis suggests its having been completed between 1810 and 1820.

Both front and rear facades have one-story banistered porches. The front porch is supported by square wooden columns. Simple wooden steps lead to the front entranceway. A large dormer window with sidelights and a central fan medallion is located on the gable roof, directly above the entrance.

Zante has been extensively vandalized. All but three mantels have been taken, numerous windows smashed, and several doors destroyed. The front door, as well as its sidelights and transom, has been destroyed. Photographs taken in 1974, show its original appearance. The door was paneled, with an astragal in the center. Surrounding it were flanking pilasters, sidelights, and a fanlight above. Diamond shaped panes originally appeared in the fanlights.

The rear facade differs from the front in that the porch is supported by six columns which extend from the porch to the ground. Divided wooden steps join at a central landing. Portions of both sides of the porch have been enclosed.

The side facades each feature four windows on the first two stories, and a large central window with sidelights on the third story.

All of the first and second story windows are 9/9 with louvered shutters. The windows of the Victorian additions of the rear porch were 2/2. The eaves are slightly extended with dentil moldings.

There are two interior chimneys extending through the tin gable roof.

A wide central hall runs the length of the main floor. It features a decorative elliptical arch and terminates in a stairway with three flights. On the first two floors there are two rooms on each side of the central hall, there also being a small sitting room at the front end of the hall on the second floor. On the third floor is one room on each side of the central hall.

Walls and ceilings are plastered; floors are heart pine. The third-floor ceiling has been covered with tin. Doors and windows have symmetrical raised moldings with corner block medallions. Baseboards in most of the rooms have been feather-painted to resemble marble. Doors have been similarly treated to appear grained.

Zante has been extensively vandalized; many of the windows and doors have been destroyed. The house is nevertheless sound structurally and in need of immediate restoration.

Zante is located upon a four-acre tract which includes several of the original outbuildings.