Borough House, Plantation in Stateburg, United States

Borough House is a two-story main house with a hipped roof and a full-width portico, flanked by one-story wings, built of rammed earth from 1821 to designs by A.C. Jones. The upper portico has four columns, a white balustrade and four shuttered windows; the lower level has six columns and a central paneled door. Steps rise from a broad unpaved yard.

The original house was built in 1758 and served as headquarters for both British General Cornwallis and Continental Army General Greene during the American Revolution. The plantation changed hands multiple times during this turbulent period.

The buildings show how plantation owners lived and worked during colonial and antebellum times. You can see in the structures the differences between spaces for owners and working areas.

The plantation lies on South Carolina Highway 261, 0.8 miles north of its junction with US 76/378 at Stateburg. The main house and six outbuildings stand along the road, with the Church of the Holy Cross of rammed earth directly across from Borough House. The grounds are unpaved; allow time to walk between the structures.

The main house and six outbuildings were raised from rammed earth, or pisé, starting in 1821 under Dr. William Wallace Anderson, to a design by architect A.C. Jones. The plantation is the largest assemblage of high-style pisé structures in the United States. The earth walls were later covered with stucco, so the material is easy to miss from the road.