Cheesy Grits: Historic Preservation on Edisto Island: the Hutchinson and Thorne houses

The post-Civil War period on Edisto Island produced two heros for the African-American community there: James Hutchinson and John Thorne. Both men entered into cooperative agreements with the formerly-enslaved residents of Edisto Island to pool their funds in order to purchase former plantations. The land was then subdivided with the subdivisions then sold back to the investors/residents based on their contributions to the "pool." Both Hutchinson and Thorne retained some land for themselves and their families as well. Almost a century later, the two men were still remembered. Sam Gadsden identified them to Nick Lindsay as "The Two Black Kings of Edisto Island." (I blogged about John Thorne earlier, starting here.)

So what remains of the Hutchinson and Thorne "kingdoms"? Certainly there is a lasting legacy of continued land ownership on Edisto Island. An example would be our friend (and a friend of this blog) Deborah Robinson, whom we initially met through her search for more information about John Thorne. She wanted to know more about the man who had enabled her family to purchase the land on Edisto that they still call home.

But are there personal remnants of Hutchinson and Thorne? The answer is "Yes!", but it's a qualified "Yes."

There are a few of Jim Hutchinson's personal effects (including his shotgun) on display at the Edisto Museum, which is just off Highway 174 on Chisolm Plantation Road. The museum has, however, nothing of John Thorne, most likely because the Thornes had disappeared from Edisto Island soon afater John and his wife died. At the time of their passing, in 1904 and 1905, respectively, their two surviving daughters were minors. The daughters were taken in by their Uncle Philip and Aunt Susan Thorne back in Charleston, and there is no evidence that either of them ever returned to live on Edisto Island. Any personal effects that might have remained on Edisto were probably dispersed when the house and land were sold. (We can always hold out hope that there is still a Thorne relative somewhere with some forgotten goody tucked away in the attic.)

But there are still houses. Two houses. The more well-known of the two is the Hutchinson House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NHRP) as the oldest intact African-American residence from after the Civil War. There is a longish piece about the Hutchinson House here, complete with pictures. It was actually built around 1885 by Jim Hutchinson's son, Henry, who lived in it until about 1940. The house remained in family hands until a few months ago, when it was purchased by the Edisto Island Open Land Trust with an eye toward restoring it.

Hutchison House on Edisto Island as of 2013
Photo from Wikimedia Commons

And what about John Thorne's house? It was built around 1875 by John Thorne himself. Part of the documentary evidence is an account in an old Quaker journal article published in 1880 entitled The Friend, which mentions that Thorne "owned a comfortable residence" presumably on his Edisto Island property. The house is still standing just off Highway 174 near the intersection with Edingsville Beach Road. It is identifiable by its location, by the number of dormers, and by the arched brick chimney caps, which are one of the hallmarks of more "bourgeois" construction from the period. Not only is it still there, it is still occupied, although not, so far as we know, by anyone with any close connection to the Thorne family. It's simply a private residence.

So why isn't the Thorne house on the NHRP? I wrote to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and asked them, as they are responsible for the listing of historic places in South Carolina.

Once we had clarified that the date of construction for the Thorne house was incorrect on their inventory of historic sites—they had 1915 rather than 1875—we arrived at the heart of the matter. While the Thorne house is without question historic, the problem for the purposes of the NHRP is that it has been remodeled in a way that has concealed the historic configuration, e.g., the entrance has been moved from one side of the house to another.

So while the historicity of the house is not in question, the look of the house, as my SCDAH correspondent wrote "...has to be able to physically convey the time period..." in order to be eligible for listing on the National Register. And the Thorne house apparently doesn't do that as it currently stands.

So that's pretty much the status of the Thorne house in terms of the National Register of Historic Places, which is a fancy way of saying "Bummer!"

John Thorne's house on Edisto Island

There does remain the question of Thorne's store, as the contemporary descriptions of his enterprise all mention a general store adjacent to his home and barn/cotton gins. It appears that some part of the building that was formerly Main's Market/Grant's Store was in a previous life part of John Thorne's store. I haven't really explored that question at all yet, except to note that the old Main's Market/Grant's Store building is in the shape of a T. Whether the stem preceded the cross or vice versa I do not yet know.

I guess my tasks are clear: win the Powerball lottery; make the current owners of the Thorne house an offer sufficient to induce them to sell; discover the original configuration; restore the original configuration; and re-apply for listing on the NRHP.

Sounds like a good week's work. I'm going to get right on it.