Restoration in Progress

Those visiting Walnut Grove Plantation this weekend for FestiFall will notice the changes the historic site is undergoing as restorations of the 251-year-old main house are in full swing.

The site has remained open and events have continued throughout the restoration, which began with an evaluation of the property in September 2016, an intentional choice, Spartanburg County Historical Association Executive Director Suzanne Brooks said.

“We adapted our tour so that people could see the restoration in progress. That’s something I’ve been very passionate about as a preservationist,” Brooks said. “We don’t close the building to the public while it’s under restoration or we’re perpetuating this idea that you wave a magic wand, and it’s 1767 again. This is a very timely, costly process.”

Brooks said that the restoration began as a stabilization project to be completed in phases, expected to cost $350,000, which the Spartanburg County Historical Association planned to fund through its endowments and private donations. But a recent posthumous donation through the Pauline T. Bain Charitable Trust has made it possible for the group to complete the restoration in full.

Considering the house’s last major renovation took place before 1879 and restoration in the early 1960s, this restoration will be a thorough one.

Some of the repairs are smaller, like repointing the fireplaces and re-glazing the windows, while others are much larger. For example, Brooks said that the 2016 inspection revealed multiple structural issues, including a roof needing replacing and, more seriously, shrinkage in the lumber used to build the bones of the house, leaving 4-5 inch gaps between beams and wood rot that was affecting the foundation. One corner of the house was slumping and was structurally unsafe, leading to a jack system being placed under the house in the summer of 2017.

“Even though it might look like we’re taking a puzzle apart and putting it back together, the promise that we can give after all this is said and done, the warranty that we’re getting out of everything we’re doing in the house (is) we won’t have to worry about Walnut Grove in our lifetime,” Brooks said.

Brooks said restorations would not affect the upcoming FestiFall activities, noting the project was well underway during last year’s festival. And while the work wasn’t as visible, certain areas of the house were much more precarious.

“Last year, only the re-enactors were allowed upstairs. We wanted it to look to the public as though nothing has changed even though we’re all standing here holding our breath waiting until the re-enactment was over,” Brooks said. “The re-enactors storm the house and they literally run up the stairs and create the most dramatic interpretation of what happened (during "Bloody Bill" Cunningham's raid), and the whole time I’m standing there (thinking) please let the house be OK. This year, I don’t have that concern.”

This year, since the upstairs have been stabilized, that part of the house will be reopened to the public for the first time in two years. While there will be no tours during Festifall, tour guides will be available to explain the restoration.

Brooks and Spartanburg County Historical Association Site Coordinator Rebekah Cockrell said that the structure wasn’t the only thing undergoing changes — the tours will be getting an update as well. New signs for the self-guided tour will be added, and the guided tour will be updated with seasonal variations to include a more thorough and inclusive look at life at Walnut Grove Plantation.

“We’re looking at including more members of the family in our interpretation so that we’re not just talking Charles and Mary and their three sons. They had seven daughters, and those seven daughters had seven lives,” Cockrell said. “We’re really trying to just tell a more all-inclusive story of what the family actually was; not just one person, but the entire family and everyone else who lived on this property, too. It wasn’t just Charles and Mary who lived here with their kids. They had at least 12 enslaved people who lived here, not to mention itinerant farmers, and we have records of at least one apprentice. There’s a lot more lives to tell about here than we’ve done so far, so it’s exciting.”

The exterior of the house will also be getting a historically accurate makeover, thanks to paint analysis that allows preservationists like Brooks and Cockrell to determine the original color of samples of old paint. While, like many restored historic houses, Walnut Grove was painted white with black shutters, the group’s research found that the house was originally a warm, golden yellow with bold red shutters.

The timeline for the project is still fluid, though Brooks estimates that the exterior restoration will be completed in January and the interior in the spring.