County of house: Beaufort County
Location of house: Craven St. & Church St., N. side, Beaufort
Built: 1815
Architectural Style: Greek Revival
The Person (Original):
Milton Maxcy was a Massachusetts businessman, teacher, and the founder of Beaufort College in Beaufort, South Carolina. He moved to Beaufort in 1804 and established a school for young men with his brother Virgil. Maxcy also built a house on Craven Street, which later became known as the Maxcy-Rhett House.
"This house was built circa 1810 for Milton Maxcy (1782-1817), who came here from Massachusetts in 1804. Maxcy and his brother Virgil, who founded a school for young men in Beaufort, later taught at Beaufort College." ~ Sons of Confederate Veterans
Birth: 1782 in Attleboro, MADeath: 1817 in Beaufort, SC
Graduated from Brown University in 1802
He removed to Beaufort, SC in 1804 to open an all boys school with his brother Virgil.
He was a lawyer and a school teacher in Beaufort, SC
Died of Yellow Fever. His home is at 1113 Craven Street in Beaufort, SC. An inscription on the basement wall reads: "In this house the first meeting of Secession ¡was held in South Carolina." According to local tradition, after voting, the Beaufort County Delegation went directly to the boat landing and set off for Charleston to cast their ballots for secession.
The Person: (Secondary):
"Edmund Rhett (1808-1863), lawyer, planter, state representative, and state senator, brought the house and extensively remodeled it in the Greek Revival style, featuring an elaborate two-story portico.
"Edmund Rhett, along with his brother Robert Barnwell Rhett (1800-1876), lawyer, state representative, state attorney general, U.S. congressman and senator, was an outspoken champion of state rights and Southern nationalism from the 1830's to the Civil War. This house, long known as "Secession House," was the scene of many informal discussions and formal meetings during the 1850's by the Rhetts and their allies advocating secession and Southern independence." - Sons of Confederate Veterans.[marker on site]
"After studying with an elder brother on the rice plantation of his father, EDMUND RHETT was sent for two years to school at Andover, Massachusetts, and thence to Yale College. Being equally proficient in Mathematics and the Ancient Languages, he had but a single competitor. This was one of the WINTHROP family, of Boston, with whom the Faculty proposed that he should divide the first honor of the class. After consultation with his friends, he declined the proposal. The course of the Faculty being deemed to be governed by sectional partialities and prejudices, he retired before the commencement exercise; but his diploma was sent after him to South Carolina. He studied law in the office, and became copartner, of the Hon. R. BARNWELL RHETT, residing in Charleston, while the latter was Attorney General of the State. His brother soon after went to Congress as a Representative of the Seventh District. Mr. EDMUND RHETT established himself at Beaufort, practising his profession, at first in copartnership with his brother ALBERT, then living at Grahamville, and meeting with decided success. He served formerly as a member of the House of Representatives from St. Helena Parish in the State Legislature. For many years he added to his profesional labors the burdens of Intendancy of Beaufort. In 1858 he was elected to the State Senate, and in the fall of […..] was re-elected for four years — still serving as Intendant of Beaufort. He was Chairman of the Senate's Committee on Education, and Trustee of the South Carolina College. After the fall of Beuafort, from the disaster at Broad River, he served as a private at Port Royal Ferry. Under an Act of the Legislature, which soon sat, he was appointed one of a Commission for the registry of property destroyed. He was also made Provost Marshal of the Third Military District, and exercised the responsible duties of that office until his decease." ~ Edmund Rhett
The Place (Historic)
Greek Revival: Ten buildings were recorded in the survey as representing the Greek Revival style. Greek Revival buildings in Beaufort typically have monumental porticos or porches across their facades, several having temple-front designs, and exhibit Greek Revival stylistic elements such as trabeated entrances, shouldered window and/or door surrounds, smooth wall surfaces and Greek
decorative motifs. Six examples are located in the Point neighborhood, two are located in the Bluff, one is located in Downtown and one is in the Northwest Quadrant. The residential examples of the style recorded by the survey are large-scale mansions and they include: ... the Milton Maxcy House ("Secession House," 113 Craven Street, circa 1815, remodeled circa 1845, site #1110);...
"Craven St., 1113 - single dwelling: Milton Maxcy House - 1815 ca. - 2-story frame dwelling - block 90 - site 1110.01
"Once introduced, Greek Revival forms often provided a useful and fashionable screen for earlier and less up to date buildings. Examples are found on Bay Street, but two structures located on Craven
Street are more representative. The Milton Maxcy House (1113 Bay Street, site #1110.01), also known as "Secession House," was built circa 1813 but was given a new south porch by Edmund Rhett circa 1850
as part of a larger rebuilding program. ...
"The uninterrupted two-story porch and side entrance motif is an interesting stylistic variation that is similar to several examples in Charleston of single houses set on corner lots where the piazza
faces the southern exposure and the entrance is set within a side elevation. A variation of this detail can be found on several houses in Beaufort where porches are accessed by a staircase at either
end of the porch. An example of this latter detail is found at the Milton Maxcy House ("Secession House," 113 Craven Street, site #1110) which is also a Federal style house that was extensively renovated in the Greek Revival style. Here the porch is accessed by a set of marble steps set to the east of the porch that curve upward from the street to its raised first floor level." ~ NRHP Nomination Form, PDF pages 29, 44, 85, 152
The Place (Today):
Attractions:
"Join the ranks of movie Stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand who have stayed at the Rhett House Inn while filming movies in Beaufort like The Prince of Tides, Forrest Gump, The Big Chill, and The Great Santini just to name a few. Stars and their rooms:
Barbra Streisand stayed in Room 3 and Room 4
Robert Redford stayed in Newcastle House
Sandra Bullock stayed in Room 2
Robin Givens stayed in Room 8
Ben Affleck stayed in Room 10
Gwyneth Paltrow stayed in Room 3
Blythe Danner stayed in Room 10
Tom Hanks stayed in Newcastle House
Michael O’Keefe stayed in Newcastle House
Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgewick: Christmas at The Rhett House Inn
Gabriel Byrne stayed in Newcastle House
Rooms:
"The Rhett House Inn consists of the Thomas Smith Rhett House, built ca. 1820 as a summer home by one of South Carolina’s wealthiest planters and statesmen; The Cottage, which was built ca. 1864 as one of the first schools/stores for freedmen in the South; and Newcastle House, a detached luxury two-bedroom home adjacent to the Inn."
"The Rhett House contains 10 rooms on three floors, many of which feature high ceilings, antiques, oriental rugs, fresh orchids, and fireplaces; and are surrounded by spacious verandas. The Cottage contains 7 charming and historic rooms on two floors, which feature whirlpool tubs, fireplaces, and individual decks/patios. Newcastle House is a beautiful, self-contained two-bedroom home, perfect for 2 couples or anyone seeking the ultimate in upscale downtown accommodations."
"Our COTTAGE ROOMS are located across Newcastle Street in the former Freedmen’s Store, ca. 1864, which was the first store/school for freed slaves in Beaufort County. After various incarnations and uses, it became part of the Rhett House Inn in 1996. Seven additional King and Queen rooms are located on two levels, and each room has its own balcony or patio, whirlpool tub, separate step-in shower, fireplace, flat-screen TV, luxury Rhett House Inn robes, iron, ironing board, hair dryer, and wireless internet access. Some rooms still contain the 150 year-old fireplaces, original wood floors, and brick alcoves and display shelves where goods such as rice and flour were displayed for sale." - from Inn web site