The Hampton plantation houses photographed from the marsh creek. The creek was the ‘entrance road’ off the Santee River and the beginning of the 25 large rice fields.

These are among the oldest original plantation buildings in the south. The main house was built in 1730. Being remote during the civil war the plantation was not burned. Also the construction of the buildings was primarily Black Cypress trees. The wood is resistant to insects and rarely burns. The US Navy still maintains wooded areas with this Cypress since it is the hardest wood known for ship building. The ‘unsinkable’ USS Constitution (old iron sides) is constructed of this type of cypress.

Hampton Plantation, Santee Delta, South Carolina.