Photo by Anne Waits/Staff

James Earl and Mary Kennamer

Six homes in Edgefield were adorned in all of their Christmas splendor Saturday for the 2008 Christmas Tour of Historic Homes.

The event was sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Oakley Park, the starting point of all the activities and the place where tickets could be obtained, was decorated and open for display. Now owned by the UDC, the two-story antebellum mansion faces west with a view along Main Street to the Edgefield Courthouse.

The house and grounds stand on a 40-acre estate. Hand-carved hall paneling, gilt cornices in the reception rooms, plaster ceilings highlighted by medallions from which hang prism chandeliers, and a front and rear piazza through double doors with fanlights are just a few of the many features of the home.

Prominent in the rear garden is a well around which Company D of the Palmetto Regiment gathered to receive the blue silk flag, a present from the women of Edgefield. The house was built in 1835 by Daniel Bird, a local attorney who descended from the famous Virginia Bird family.

Martin Witherspoon Gary, a noted Confederate general, purchased the property in 1881.
During his lifetime, Oakley Park was a center of social and political life in Edgefield.

John Gary Evans, Gary's nephew, deeded the property to the Town of Edgefield in 1941 to be used as a public park. James Earl and Mary Kennemer opened their home, "Summer Breeze," more commonly referred to as the old Dobson House, on Columbia Road to the public.

The Kennemers moved to Summer Breeze in 1991. The Dobson House remained in the same family from the time it was built in 1878 until 1987. The current dwelling replaced an older, more primitive structure. Wayne and Linda Carlton of Montrose, Colo. purchased the property from W.R. Dobson in 1987.

They began a major renovation of the house which was completed in 1990. When the Carltons moved back to Colorado, the Kennemers moved in to continue restoring and expanding the work the Carltons had begun. The home's interior consists of a study, a living room, dining room, master bedroom, half bath, and an addition containing a kitchen, laundry room, master bath and closets.
Upstairs there are two bedrooms and a full bath connected by a hallway.

The W.W. Adams House, currently owned by Mary Altalo, was built in the early 1890s from architectural plans of George Franklin Barber, one of the most prolific American architects of the late Victorian period. The house retains much of the original character with the tin ceilings in the front parlor and dining room and original fireplace mantels in most rooms.

Altalo moved here in June from Potomac, Md. She had seen the house on a visit to the Old Edgefield Grill while vacationing with a friend in Aiken and fell in love with it.

"I had an old historic house in Maryland, so I didn't have to buy any new furniture," she said. "The living room furniture is from Italy and of French design."Altalo's plans are to restore the third floor and the garden.

Magnolia Dale, home of the Edgefield Historical Society, was built on the site of the first residence in Edgefield dating back to approximately 1762. Samuel Brooks is thought to have built the current house in 1843. Brooks sold the house to Harold J. Norris, a prominent lawyer and businessman. His daughter married James Hammond Tillman who became lieutenant governor of South Carolina.

In 1929, the house and grounds were sold to the Kendall Company but Mrs. Tillman continued to live there. In 1859 she convinced the Kendall Company to give the house and grounds to the Edgefield County Historical Society. Interesting items in the house include portraits of several prominent people, a sideboard belonging to Gov. George McDuffie, a dining room table of Governor and Senator Benjamin Ryan Tillman and items in the Strom Thurmond Room.

Carroll Hill, the James Parson Carroll Home, is owned by Tricia Glenn. It was built in 1842 by Carroll, a prominent lawyer in Edgefield. He and his wife Eliza lived there until 1860 when they moved to Columbia so that he could assume a position as judge of the Chancellery Court.

He was one of the signers of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession.

Carroll's niece Ellen Brooks Dunovant, and her husband R.G.M. Dunovant moved into the home. He was a prominent military figure in South Carolina. Carroll Hill has unique architectural features including a floor plan with a large entrance hallway on the side. A grand floating staircase adorns one end of the hallway.

Most of the rooms have 12-foot ceilings. The house has been maintained by a secession of Dunovant descendants and is considered one of Edgefield's classic antebellum homes.
The Whitfield Brooks House on Cantelou Road is presently owned by Tommy Rushin. Col. Whitfield Brooks built the house about 1820 on land given by his father-in-law, James Parsons Carroll. The plantation was located on Chappells Ferry Road in the Center Springs Community.

Whitfield Brooks was commissioner in equity for Edgefield District and practiced law. Rushin acquired the house in 1986 and moved it to its present location in 1993. The house is built of heart pine in the plantation plain style. The separate kitchen is now used for storage. Mantels in the front room are original, as are the doors and 10-inch baseboards. Windows in the four front rooms have the original panes.

The rear of the house was modified by the Rushins to include a large kitchen-breakfast area with five French doors opening onto a back porch.

The Tour of Homes is held annually at Christmas time and has been a successful fundraiser, according to UDC members.