Midfield Plantation

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(Ellerbe House; Boineau House) Midfield Plantation House, built ca. 1821, is significant for its association with the cultural and social development of Kershaw County, for its background role in the enactment of the state’s anti-dueling law and for its unusual architectural blending of building traditions of coastal and central South Carolina. The house was built by Thomas McCrady, an attorney from Charleston, soon after he purchased the property in 1821. The house and plantation were purchased in 1835 by Dr. and Mrs. William E. Ellerbe and has remained in the Ellerbe family (in its Boineau line). The house shows the influence of the Charleston “single house,” and, in general style, resembles plantation houses near Charleston in its use of frame construction on a high masonry basement and in its use of the piazza. The pairing of entrance doors, each door leading to a separate rooms, is a feature common to plantation houses in Berkeley County, near Charleston. The recessing of the older porch or piazza behind a later porch mounted on tall, free-standing pillars, reflects an architectural tradition of the Kershaw County area. The house has been altered with rear additions of ca. 1900 which appear to have replaced a one-story shed-type roof. Included within the nominated acreage are the remains of the original kitchen and smokehouse. South Carolina’s anti-dueling law of 1881 resulted from public outrage concerning the last formal duel in the state, on July 5, 1880, in which a participant was killed. The duel resulted from a lawsuit in which Midfield Plantation was involved