1 Farmfield Avenue
Charleston, SC, USA

Farmfield Plantation House

Farmfield Plantation House was built in 1854 for William Ravenel, a prominent Charleston businessman and banker. It is one of the few plantation houses with unaltered exteriors in St. Andrew's Parish which survived the American Civil War. The interior has been modified.

Farmfield Plantation once included most of the property between U.S. Highway 17 and Folly Road, but most of it has been subdivided. Its construction was described by Rose Pringle Ravenel, the daughter of the builder, in her book Piazza Tales. Today, the house is surrounded on three sides by suburban development. In 2002, an easement to the Lowcountry Open Land Trust was placed on the remaining six acres to ensure no further subdivisions.

The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 29, 1982.

National Register of Historic Places - Farmfield Plantation House

Statement of Significance:

Farm-field Plantation House, a two-and-one-half-story, frame residence located in St. Andrews Parish, suburban Charleston, South Carolina, was built ca. 1854 for William Ravenel, a prominent Charleston businessman and banker. It is significant as a largely unaltered antebellum plantation house, one of the few in St. Andrew's Parish which survived the Civil War. Farmfield is also locally important for its association with Ravenel, a banker, shipping agent, merchant, and manufacturer.

Additional Information: William Ravenel, son of Daniel Ravenel II of Wan toot, was born 23 October 1806. He married Eliza Butler Pringle, who bore him eleven children. Ravenel entered the business world at the age of sixteen in the shipping company of Ravenel and Stevens; seven years later he became a partner. Ravenel and Company, as it became known, was completely wiped out by the Civil War. Ravenel also served as a director for the Planters’ and Mechanics’ Bank from around 1830 until 1865, when the bank ceased doing business. In addition, from 1859 to 1865 Ravenel was a director of the Charleston Savings Institution.2 In 1863 Ravenel was listed as the president of the Palmetto Exporting and Importing Company, a newly chartered company licensed to carry war goods.3 In 1870, as the city began to recover from the war, the Planters’ and Mechanics’ Bank resumed business, and Ravenel was again a director until 1878 when it closed.4 in 1871 Ravenel was elected president of the recently formed Stono Phosphate Company and served in that position until the company closed in 1888. The company appears to have been quite successful during the years it operated in spite of organizational difficulties.

Although never a planter on a large scale, Ravenel was interested in agriculture before the war. In addition to supervising the Marsh plantation, which belonged to his wife, Ravenel purchased acreage in St. Andrews Parish which he called Farmfield. The family spent several months of the year at the farm, living in a small house already on the property until the present house was finished ca. 1854. Mrs. Ravenel supervised cultivation of the grounds, which were greatly admired. Farmfield was a self-supporting operation, supplying the family's fresh produce needs. While in residence in Charleston, William Ravenel and his wife often visited Farm field to check on the farming operation. During the last year of the war Ravenel and his family spent most of their time at Farmfield to escape the constant shelling. In that year at least one battle took place near Farmfield, and not long after, the family fled to the safety of Society Hill in the Upcountry. Northern troops visited Farm field early in 1865 but miraculously did not damage the house itself. After Ravenel's death in 1888, Farmfield remained in the family, and Ravenel's surviving children still visited the farm for several months each year. 6 In the 1920s there was a commercial dairy at Farm field run by Arthur and Harold Ravenel, Farmfield Plantation House is rental space. probably grandsons still owned by the or great-nephews of William. 7 Today Ravenels and is used for residential rental space.

Architecture:
Farm field Plantation House is an example of a vernacular plantation house adapted to a Greek Revival format. The longitudinal-hall plan with the main entrance beneath the gable end Is characteristic of the Greek Revival temple composition and is distinct from the ubiquitous transverse-hall plan of South Carolina farmhouses. The elaboration of the gable ends as pediments and the Doric porticos on the north and south elevations are also indicative of the conscious adaptation of Greek Revival stylistic elements to the house. Farm field is also noteworthy as one of very few antebellum houses to have survived in this part of Charleston County.