© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

“F” is for Fort Hill

South Carolina A to Z larger logo

“F” is for Fort Hill (Clemson). Fort Hill was the plantation home of John C. Calhoun. He acquired the 1,100 acre tract in 1825 and renamed it Fort Hill after a Revolutionary War fortification. He enlarged the original house to fourteen rooms.Calhoun composed some of his most significant political works at Fort Hill, including his 1828 South Carolina Exposition and Protest and the 1831 Fort Hill Address. After Calhoun’s death the property passed to his son-in-law Thomas Green Clemson. In his 1888 will Clemson bequeathed more than 814 acres of the Fort Hill estate to the state of South Carolina for an agricultural college with the stipulation that the “dwelling house never be torn down or altered” and that it would always be open to visitors.  Fort Hill was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

Stay Connected
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.