Poplar Grove, Historic plantation house in Scotts Hill, North Carolina
Poplar Grove is a 19th-century manor house in Pender County, North Carolina, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The main building features covered porches and sits alongside several original outbuildings, including a smokehouse, a kitchen shed, a carriage house, and worker housing.
The estate was built around 1850 and grew into one of the largest peanut plantations in North Carolina, relying heavily on enslaved labor. After the Civil War, the land was farmed by tenant workers, many of whom came from the same families who had previously been enslaved on the property.
Poplar Grove hosts a weekly farmers market where local growers and makers sell their goods directly to visitors on the grounds. Nearby heritage art studios carry on the handcraft traditions that have long been part of life in this part of North Carolina.
The property sits along U.S. Route 17 (a main coastal highway) and is easiest to reach by car. Visiting on a market day gives you the chance to explore the grounds while the site is at its most active.
The grounds still contain a surviving tenant house connected to the Nixon family, one of the few remaining buildings of its kind in this part of the state. It offers a direct look at the daily life of people who continued to work the land long after the end of slavery.
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