Developers of The Ponds save place for farmhouse

SUMMERVILLE — Less sensitive developers might have viewed the 19th-century farmhouse here as an obstacle to their plans, but the developers of The Ponds community here saw it as a potential focal point.

After an extensive renovation, they've made their case.

This plantation property at the Ashley River's headwaters dates to 1682, but the surviving farmhouse was the third built on site. While it had nice, familiar proportions, it wasn't of great architectural note.

Its Georgian floor plan (four rooms divided by a central hall) suggests it was built as early as 1830, but much of its fabric — from its windows, paneling and interior doors — date to the Queen Anne era in the late 19th century, according to research by Brockington and Associates Inc.

John Morgan of Greenwood Development Corp. says the house was still valued because it was the only surviving structure from the site's long history.

"It was in bad shape," Morgan says of the house. "We could have built twice as much building for the money, but people love the authentic. They want to reach out and touch history. We felt it was imperative to save it."

The renovation first involved moving the house about 200 feet, partly because of the necessity of giving it a sturdier foundation because the house is being used as a community building and because it must meet commercial codes. The Ponds Conservancy, a nonprofit group, ultimately will own the farmhouse and use it for social and cultural events.

Moving the house also solved the problem of how to save the grand tree that had grown next to its front door and how to make it relate better to other grand trees.

While the new foundation is made of cinder blocks, they're covered by the original bricks, as are the rebuilt chimneys, says Darryl Cobb of Cobb Architects

The project didn't involve federal historic tax credits, but Greenwood and Cobb still sought feedback from the State Historic Preservation Office.

The attention to details included rebuilding the wooden windows and their counterweights and reinstalling a marble walkway. While it seems difficult to believe a farmhouse had such a luxurious feature, some fragments of the original have been found, Morgan says.

A kitchen wing that was deemed unsalvageable was rebuilt in a similar but somewhat larger way, recycling the large beams and wood flooring.

The Ponds farmhouse is the first of four community centers planned for the neighborhood, and to flesh out the rest of this one, Cobb designed five outbuildings, including a picnic pavilion, two pool buildings with men's and women's changing rooms, a storage shed and a sales center that can be converted into another use later on. They not only share the same color, wood siding and metal roofs of the farmhouse, their designs were inspired by old photos of earlier outbuildings.

"We didn't want to replicate the originals but to be suggestive of the original buildings in terms of shape, form, texture and materials," Cobb says. "We just kept it minimalistic. We wanted the farmhouse to be the main object of interest. It's just the opposite of what architects want to do. We want to build trophies. We had to train ourselves to back off."

As nice as the house's preservation is, it's perhaps even more important to note the preservation of much of the land here. Less than half of the property's 2,000 acres are being built upon.

The conserved property includes the woods surrounding Schulz Lake, the last navigable water between the Ashley River and the great swamp to the north.

"In 25 years, those canoeing up the Ashley River will never see a house," Morgan says.

So while it's commendable to preserve an old house, it's also nice to see a special place being preserved from the arrival of new ones.

Robert Behre may be reached at 937-5771 or by fax at 937-5579. His e-mail address is rbehre@postandcourier.com, and his mailing address is 134 Columbus St., Charleston, SC 29403.