"K" is for Kensington Plantation

"K" is for Kensington Plantation, located in lower Richland County. Rather than follow the Greek-revival style so favored by his fellow Southern planters, Matthew Richard Singleton chose to transform his simple upcountry farmhouse into a Renaissance-inspired mansion that recalled the country villas of northern Italy. Kensington is a frame house set on a raised basement. The domed central section is flanked by two gabled wings with arched colonnades and fronted by a portecochere with Corinthian pilasters. The interior centerpiece is the main hall, which rises two and one-half stories to a skylight at the top of the dome and has a second story balcony. The formal first-floor rooms feature elaborate plaster ornamentation; originally, the house had a brilliant polychrome color scheme. In 1981 Union Camp Corporation purchased the property and undertook a complete restoration of the magnificent Kensington Plantation.