Date of Award
5-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Planning, Development, and Preservation
Committee Member
Carter Hudgins, Committee Chair
Committee Member
Amalia Leifeste
Committee Member
Katherine Pemberton
Committee Member
Richard Porcher
Abstract
Historic Preservation’s concept of significance has evolved throughout the discipline’s short lifespan. While this field is ever growing and adapting, there are pieces of history that get lost while waiting to be deemed significant. This leads to buildings, places, sites, and objects becoming lost while in hindsight they have significant qualities. However, this does not mean that information is lost permanently. This thesis reevaluates the plantation landscapes of St. John’s Parish, South Carolina lost when inundated by Lake Moultrie in 1942. Prior to this inundation, all structures were dismantled. This area covered roughly eighty-six square miles and contained twenty plantations. Architectural historian Thomas Waterman conducted a survey of the area in 1938 which focused on high style colonial and antebellum houses but mentioned very little about cultural landscapes or outbuildings. This thesis “fills-in” the Waterman report, recovering and assessing the landscapes and plantation outbuildings that were not included in 1938. The survey proposed in this thesis begins with a post hoc method with a case study in St. John’s Parish. The survey assessment began with available historical documents, maps, photographs and other historical images. This method of regaining information pertaining to lost sites and buildings can be applied to other survey. While conducting a post hoc study is not ideal for understanding historic sites, it will at times be a necessity. This thesis serves as an example of how to recreate lost historic sites and landscapes based on documentary evidence alone.
Recommended Citation
Poston, Kristina, "It's Not All Water Under the Bridge: Reevaluating Early Methods of Survey with a Case Study in St. John's Parish" (2018). All Theses. 2872.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/2872