This week’s photo looks peaceful, doesn’t it? Where is it? Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our March 8 mystery, “Wow, what a Lowcountry house,” got two kinds of responses from readers. Four people recognized the house as being in Beaufort, including Chip Brown of Conway; Elizabeth Harmon of Columbia; Wyman Oxner of Orangeburg and Bruce Snyder of Greenville. But four knew it was the house of Reconstruction Congressman Robert Smalls, including Harvey Shackelford of Newberry; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Mary Greene of Columbia; and Philip Cromer of Beaufort. Thanks to Bud Ferillo for sending us the photo!
Cromer noted the photo showed “the Henry McKee House (built 1834), or as it is probably better known, the Robert Smalls house on Prince Street in Beaufort. Smalls was born a slave in 1839 in one of the cabins located in the rear of the property. As everyone knows, he rose to prominence with the piloting of The Planter out of Charleston harbor to federal forces. With the prize money he received from the sale of The Planter ,he bought the McKee house at a tax sale in 1863 and the house remained in the Smalls family until 1940.”
Greene added, “He traveled to Washington to meet President Lincoln and advocate for blacks soldiers in the U.S. Army. He was a state representative, U.S. congressman and portmaster for the Port of Port Royal. Beaufort’s favorite son!”
- Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!