This year’s Lowcountry Brunch & Tour will be held at the gracious home of Bill and Caroline Hatcher, Frogmore Manor, ca. 1810 and Plantation on St. Helena Island. The property was originally owned by Lt. Governor William Bull, who willed it to his son in 1750.  Once boasting over 3000 acres, the property today includes some 72 acres. The manor house, barn and windmill/water tower provide an important example of early architectural development on St. Helena during the period of 1790 to 1920.  Built ca.1810, the barn is a significant example of early tabby construction.  In 1867-68 the property was purchased by Laura Towne and Ellen Murray, Northern missionaries and teachers who arrived on St. Helena Island in 1862 and founded Penn School, one the nation’s first schools for formerly enslaved persons and the first to be established in the southern United States. Following their deaths in the early 1900s, the property was purchased by James Ross Macdonald and remains in the family to today. 

 

Dr. Larry Rowland will be joining us mid-day (11am – 12pm) to discuss the early history of St. Helena. Dr. Mollie Barnes, professor of English at USCB and the inaugural Lawrence S. Rowland Endowed Professor, will be joining Dr. Rowland to discuss Frogmore’s early history and Penn School founders Laura Towne and Ellen Murray who purchased and resided at Frogmore Plantation following the Civil War.