Yahoo Finance This $17.5M SC estate for sale dates back to 1795 and once housed circus animals. Take a look
P.T. Barnum once used a South Carolina plantation as a retreat for his circus animals.
The same property was at times a grist mill, saw mill and used to grow cotton, sweet potato, and corn as well as for timber harvesting.
The Eastover property, now known as Goodwill Estate, dates to 1795.
Last week, owner Larry Faulkenberry listed it for sale at an asking price of $17.5 million. The 736-acre property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Located at 229 Joseph Kershaw Road in lower Richland County, the property includes two Charleston-inspired homes — an 8,400 square-foot main home and a 5,488 square-foot second home. Both overlook 35-acre Goodwill Lake.
Overall there are 14 bedrooms, 13 full baths and four partial baths.
The acreage has wetlands, hardwood forests, 45 acres of fields and meadows and 12 miles of trails/roads along Colonels Creek.
The main house, built by Billy Ray Caskey Custom Home Builder and Craftsman in 2010, is sheathed in hand-molded brick from Old Carolina Brick Company based on Salisbury, North Carolina.
The entryway includes a sweeping grand staircase topped by an antique French Crystal chandelier.
The main bedroom and bath are located on the first floor. Also on the first floor are two dining areas, the kitchen with high-end appliances and an office with built-in bookshelves. A sun room overlooks the lake.
The house also includes a media room, bonus room, sauna, exercise room and laundries on the first and second floor and an elevator.
Heart of pine flooring was harvested from the estate’s land.
The garage includes room for three cars, and a covered area can hold eight more.
Faulkenberry bought the property in the 1990s as an investment, but is said to have fallen in love with it and decided to restore it instead.
The grist mill is operational, the mid-1800-era home of Edward Barnwell Heyward, was restored and converted to a museum. Two cabins once inhabited by people enslaved on the plantation remain on the property. The application to the National Register says during the Civil War, Goodwill Plantation had about 976 enslaved, including some people from other plantations.
The application also said due to an advanced irrigation system installed and expanded by first owner Daniel Huger II, the farming operation was considered quite successful.
In all, 14 people and one company have owned the property, including wealthy Northerner Julia Clarke, who In 1888 used convict labor to make improvements.
The sawmill is powered by the original water wheel. There is also a hunting lodge, blacksmith shop, caretaker’s home, two barns, a corn crib and a silo.
There is a small waterfall on the site, an island rookery, quail fields and meadows with turkeys and white-tailed deer.
The property is adjacent to the protected Wateree River Heritage Preserve, part of which was once included in Goodwill Plantation.
In 2015, Faulkenberry sold 2,545 acres for $20 million to Haile Gold Mine in Kershaw to be used as mitigation for the environmental impact caused by the mine, according to the brothers who handled the sale, NAI Avant senior brokers Tom Milliken and Tombo Milliken.
Goodwill Estate also comes with regulatory approval to build a 22-lot community.
