Woodburn Plantation – Pendleton – Anderson County

— Woodburn Plantation © Bill Fitzpatrick, 2013 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Pendleton, Anderson County

  Located on History Lane, off Hwy 76/28 across from Tri-County Technical College
  

• Origin of name – Thought to have been derived from a couplet by Sir Walter Scott which in part reads, "Where reed upon her margin sees Sweet Woodburn's cottages and trees." (4, II: 8)
  

• Other names – Frank Place (1, p. 1)
  

• Current status – Owned by Pendleton Historic Foundation and operated as a house museum.
  

— Side View of Woodburn Plantation © Gary A. DuBose, 2015 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Timeline

• 1800 – Earliest known date of existence

• 1832 – House built by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1, p. 3).
  

• 1850s – David S. Taylor acquired the plantation (2).
  

• 1850s – Taylor didn't own Woodburn long before he sold it to Reverend Dr. John Baily Adger (2).
  

• 1852 – House enlarged by Reverend Dr. John B. Adger (1, p. 3).
  

• 1858 – Joseph Ellison Adger purchased Woodburn from his brother Rev. Adger (2).
  

• 1881 – Augustine T. Smythe, nephew of Adger brothers, purchased the plantation to form a livestock farm (2).
  

• 1882 – Jane Edna Harris Hunter was born on Woodburn Farm; she later founded the Phyllis Wheatley Association.
  

• 1911 – Smythe sold the 8.45 acre property to William Frederick Calhoun Owen for $20,000 (2).
  

• 1930 – Owen lost Woodburn during the Great Depression when he was unable to make the mortgage payments and the South Carolina State Bank of Greenville foreclosed, taking possession of the plantation (2).
  

• 1930 – South Carolina State Bank of Greenville split the property into two parts and within three months sold 6.05 acres to John Frank (2).
  

• ? – At the conclusion of the Great Depression, the US Government through the Resettlement Administration, which aimed to aid struggling farmers, bought the property from John Frank (2).
  

• Early 1950s – Clemson College (now Clemson University) leased to purchase Woodburn Plantation from the US Government (2).
  

• 1966 – Clemson College deeded Woodburn Plantation to the Pendleton Historic Foundation. The foundation restored the house and opened it to the public (2).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 600; 8.45 acres in 1911; 6.05 acres in 1930
  

• Primary crop – ?

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1970
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. Pendleton Historic Foundation - History of Woodburn
   

3. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
   

4. Claude Henry Neuffer, editor, Names in South Carolina, Volume I through 30 (Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company) - II: 8
    Order Names in South Carolina, Volumes I-XII, 1954-1965
    Order Names in South Carolina, Index XIII-XVIII
   

5. Jane Ockershausen, The South Carolina One-Day Trip Book (McLean, VA: EPM Publications, 1998)
   
   

6. Carolina W. Todd and Sidney Wait, South Carolina: A Day at a Time (Orangeburg, SC: Sandlapper Publishing Company, 2008)
   
   

7. SC Highway Historical Marker Guide - online database by the SC Department of Archives & History
   

8. Slave Dwelling Project Visits Woodburn House Pendleton SC - Joseph McGill, a program officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, documents his overnight stay in a slave cabin at Woodburn Plantation in May 2013
   

9. Woodburn Plantation - SCIWAY's South Carolina Picture Project
   

Contact Information

• Pendleton Historic Foundation
  PO Box 444
  Pendleton, SC 29670
  

  Telephone: 864-646-7249
  Website: Click here