Architecture

 

 

 


     The Rose Hill Plantation House is a significant example of Gothic Revival residential architecture. This four-story, cruciform Gothic Revival building stands majestic and tall with a steeply pitched copper gable roof. The house has a brick foundation and vertical board-and-batten cypress siding.

     The facade (south elevation) has a projecting arm of the cruciform plan composed of a first-story porch and a second story " porch" room. The porch has Gothic clustered piers carrying an arcade of pointed arches with board-and-batten spandrels and a bracketed cornice. The main entrance beneath the porch is framed by clustered pier responds. Similar clustered piers separate the double doors and the sidelights. Cusped arches rise from the piers and responds in the interior of the porch and in the relief above the entrance.

     The asymmetrical composition, picturesque roofline and the tall proportions of the house are common elements to the Gothic Revival style. Other common elements integral to the design include the lancet arches, clustered piers and traceried windows with quarrel panes.


Rose Hill Interior

      The 10,000 square-foot interior floor plan of the four-story residence is cruciform in plan and is arranged around a dramatic elliptical domed stair-hall. The entrance is oval-shaped and has a newly restored open-stringer staircase rising at the north end of the hall and following the curve of the wall to the second floor gallery. The dome rises 54 feet above the hall. The millwork is of exceptional note.

     The main floor consists of a gentleman's game room with original working "smoking" doors beneath the windows and a 16th century signed and dated mantel, a dining room with its original Georgian mantel from the 1940s restoration, a parlor with a 19th century Victorian mantel, a planter's office (or 6th bedroom) with a 19th century Gothic Revival mantel, a conservatory, a butler's pantry, and a kitchen and laundry wing with a service 1/2 bath. The back hallway behind the entryway consists of a full Gothic bathroom that can be accessed by the planter's office/bedroom, a wine cellar, a powder room and an elevator.

     There are 4 bedrooms, each with en suite bath, on the second floor and a library with sitting room and full bath (which converts to a 5th bedroom). 

       The first bedroom at the top of the stairs has it's own mini bar. The bath for this room has a vintage tub; a separate walk-in shower; its restored, original mantel; and a lighted, antique stained-glass window that has been inserted into the wall above the mantel.  The wallpaper in this room is an 1870s pattern depicting lowcountry marsh scenes.

     The second bedroom along the mezzanine is Gothic in flavor with an antique Gothic Revival mantel. This room also has its own mini bar, and the lighting is provided by a hanging Moravian Star lantern. The bathroom has a vintage claw-foot tub and pedestal sink. Unique to this bathroom is a massive antique Gothic confessional that has been converted into a toilet room.      

   The library above the front porch is the third door along the mezzanine. Book shelves from floor to ceiling line the walls. Between the bookshelves is a doorway to a small sized bathroom that has a "maid" or "child's" 48-inch clawfoot tub. The sitting room portion of the library has an antique arched-shaped entryway, with paneling and shelves, from a 19th century church.

  The next bedroom along the mezzanine has an antique Gothic Revival mantel and a walk-in closet, as well as its own mini bar. This bedroom connects to the sitting room section off the master bedroom, so it can be used as a living room for the master. The bathroom for this room includes a walk-in shower as well as a separate walk-in steam shower. Unique to this bath is an antique, Gothic Revival cast-iron Baptismal that has been converted into a sink. Above the sink is a spectacular arch-shaped Gothic Revival stained glass window from a 19th century church. Light from the master bedroom's sitting room windows is captured by and filters through this window to illuminate this bathroom.    

 

 

   
    

       Rose Hill Plantation House has been featured in numerous magazines through the years such as the Fall 2005 issue of this magazine. 

      Article by Rebecca Walters

      Photography by Rob Kaufman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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2008
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