Building Description Snee Farm - Charles Pinckney House, Mount Pleasant South Carolina
The dwelling has a one-and-a-half story, five bay by three bay main block, measuring approximately 38' in width and 36' in depth and rising up 25' 11" in height from the first floor to the roof ridge. There are porches, approximately 91 in depth, to both the front and rear. The front porch runs the width of the facade. The rear porch connects with hyphens to either side which join the main block with the single story wings to either side (added ca. 1935-36). The wing to the west is the kitchen wing which measured approximately 18' 6" in width and 29' 6" in depth. The east wing contains the master bedroom and bath and measures approximately 16 feet in width and 32 feet in depth. The total span of the original house and added hyphens and wings is approximately 88 feet in width and 38 feet in depth.
The first floor has a basic Georgian plan with four rooms off of a center stairhall. The south front two rooms are approximately four feet deeper then the two rooms to the rear. The wide center hall is bisected by an arched entryway, and has an entry both front and rear. The stairway is in the rear section of the hall and runs along the east wall from the rear towards the south front of the house. There is a closet under the lower half of the stair, above which the underside of the stair is covered with horizontal siding. There is a closet to either side of the hall, just north of the archway (to the side of the chimney blocks). The front parlors, the southwest and southeast rooms have doorways directly across from each other. Both have fireplaces to the center of the north wall. In the southeast room, there is a closet to the east side of the fireplace. The rear, northeast and northwest rooms also have doorways across from each other off the center hall. Both also have fireplaces to the center of the east wall. In the northwest room, used as the dining room, there is an open niche to the west side of the fireplace. There is a doorway into the kitchen wing at the north wall, northwest corner. In the northeast room, there is a closet to the east side (to the west is a boxed-in area for the heating ducts) . There is a doorway into the bedroom wing at the north wall, northeast corner.
The second floor follows the same basic pattern as the first with a center hall running the depth of the house, with four rooms off of it. The center hall is lit by dormers, front and rear. There are modern bookcases built into the walls to the south front of the hall. Like the first floor, the south front rooms are deeper than those to the rear. Both these rooms are used as bedrooms with ceilings that slope down to a small knee wall to the south, with a dormer cut into the center. There is a fireplace to the center of the north wall in both rooms. The southwest room, which is slightly wider than the southeast, has a closet to the east of the fireplace and a doorway into a bathroom to the west. The southeast room has a closet to the east side of the fireplace. The rear, northwest room has been remodeled to accommodate a large bathroom (and the bath off the southwest bedroom). The northeast is the smallest of the three bedrooms. It also has sloping ceiling pierced by a dormer (as does the bath to the northwest), but has no fireplace.
The hyphen of the northeast wing is entered from a doorway in the north wa11 of the northeast room. The hyphen is used as a dressing room, with a doorway to the west onto the porch and two doorways to the east, the southerly one into a bathroom and the northerly into a hall which connects with the bedroom. There is a fireplace to the center of the north wall. There is a doorway into a second bathroom at the southeast corner of the south wall.
The hyphen of the northwest wing is entered through a doorway in the north wall of the northwest, dining room. The hyphen is used as a butler's pantry, with a doorway to the east onto the porch and doorway to the west into the kitchen. Behind the kitchen to the north is the laundry room, with the stairwell to the basement to the west side. At the landing of the stair is a half-bath, and an exterior doorway at the west wall.
The present main entrance to the house faces north, toward Long Point Road. The original, south front faces toward US Highway 17, the former King's Highway, but the road is not visible from the house. The Snee Farm property, as acquired by the National Park Service, consists of twenty eight acres which are surrounded by modern housing developments on the east, south and west sides and by undeveloped land on the north. Because the property is now much smaller than the original 700-1000 acre tract, and because the house is surrounded by housing developments, its context has been greatly altered. There is, however, much evidence of the remains of a number of outbuildings and other improvements which could be revealed and interpreted through historic archeology. There is no sense that this was once a large, working plantation, and its relationship to the river and to the King's Highway is not at all apparent.
