South Carolina Department of Archives and History
National Register Properties in South Carolina

Phelps House, Aiken County (Barnwell Ave., Aiken)
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Left Oblique Left Oblique Rear Elevation First Story
Floorplan
Second Story
Floorplan

(Rose Hill) The Phelps House is a noteworthy example of the Shingle Style, frequently used in late nineteenth and early twentieth century resort homes for the wealthy, but relatively rare in South Carolina. The Phelps estate, which served as the location for the first meetings of the Garden Club of South Carolina, contains a formal landscaped garden. The elegant home and landscaped grounds are characteristic of many such estates owned by the wealthy in pre-income tax America. The Phelps House was built in the early 1900s on the foundations of an antebellum house destroyed during the Civil War. Designed as a winter home, the two-story house has an exterior surface of wooden shingles broken by windows, gables and doorways trimmed in white. The house contains over twenty rooms. Entrance to the house is through a porte-cochere supported by Doric columns. Original owner of the house, Mrs. Sheffield Phelps, landscaped the grounds and formal gardens containing camellias, azaleas, hollies, and English boxwood. The Phelps family spent from November to May in Aiken and usually spent summers in Bar Harbor, Maine or Europe. Outbuildings include original stables, garage, kennels, three greenhouses, toolhouses, and a children’s playhouse. Listed in the National Register June 10, 1974.

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