HISTORY OF HAGLEY
ESTATES
The land occupied by Hagley Estates first emerged from a
wilderness of cypress and yellow pine toward the end of the 18th century, as
planters cleared the land for the rice cultivation that dominated agriculture
along the tidal rivers of South Carolina until after the Civil War. It
was one of many plantations along the rivers that made the Low Country rice
planters one of the wealthiest groups in all the colonies.
Hagley got its name in 1801, when the prosperous rice planter
William Alston, who had obtained the land from the Pawley family, gave the
plantation to one of his sons, Joseph Alston, to celebrate Joseph’s prospective
marriage to Theodosia Burr, the only child of Aaron Burr. The Alston's
were great admirers of English culture (notwithstanding the recent war), and
chose Hagley to remind them of the well-known parkland of that name near
London.
Joseph and Theodosia stayed only a short time on Hagley, in a
modest house near the present Hagley Landing, before moving to the more
elaborate plantation house at The Oaks (now part of Brookgreen Gardens).
The Alston's continued to develop Hagley as a rice plantation, but after
Theodosia’s death at sea in 1812 and Joseph’s death in 1816 (after a term as
governor of South Carolina), the plantation passed into other Alston hands and
then, in 1837, to Francis Marion Weston.
Weston eventually gave the management of Hagley to his son,
Plowden C.J.Weston, who combined it with the adjoining Weehauka Plantation (on
the north side of present Hagley Drive). Plowden C.J. Weston became
Hagley's full owner in 1854, building one of the finest plantation houses in
the Georgetown District. A cultured man, Weston had had an English
education and had married an Englishwoman, Emily Frances Esdaille, who helped
him in the development of Hagley and may have influenced the addition of such
features as St. Mary’s Chapel, whose English-made windows now grace the apse of
St. George Parish, Winyah, in Georgetown. Weston cherished Hagley as what
he called the most beautiful site of all the South Carolina rice plantations.”
When Plowden Weston died in 1864 of tuberculosis contracted
during his military campaigns, Hagley fell on hard times. The aftermath
of the Civil War brought economic hardship to the Low Country‘s rice plantations,
which had been heavily dependent on slave labor. Though Weston had been
known as a man who cared for the welfare of his slaves, and provided for them
upon his death, there was no successor who could restore Hagley’s economic
viability, and the plantation declined into obsolescence. His fine
plantation house slowly crumbled, suffering extensive fire damage around 1900,
and finally succumbing to the wrecking bars of revenue agents in the early 1930s
to prevent its further use by moonshiners. Parts of its foundation may still be
seen at the end of Rice Hope Lane in Hagley Estates.
The 20th century brought Hagley a brief revival, with the
purchase of the land by the Atlantic Coast Lumber Company, which built a
railroad along the present Hagley Drive/Tyson Road that ran from the
Waccamaw River across the South Causeway onto Pawleys Island, where the company
used the present-day Pelican Inn (built by Plowden Weston) for a vacation
place for its employees. In Hagley, the company built a hunting lodge,
which formerly stood on Lodge Place just off Hagley Drive. When
the company completed its logging operations, however, Hagley again lapsed into
disuse, and was largely abandoned until real estate development began in the
1960s. The lumber company had sold Hagley to the Tyson family in 1942, which
conveyed it in 1965 to Robert L. Walker of Georgetown who had it surveyed and
subdivided into approximately 1,200 lots. This was the beginning of
present-day Hagley Estates.
The first phase of development began in 1965 with an auction by
Thompson to sell the subdivided lots, which failed to raise enough to satisfy
the debt owed the Tyson family. The property was then acquired by Frank
Adamson, who improved the existing roads and cut new roads, but was himself
obliged to auction properties. At this second auction, the land
comprising the present Founders Club golf course was conveyed to the
golf course developers. Subsequent conveyances led to the building of the
present Signature Boutique Inn on U.S. 17 in 1971 and to the gradual
development of Hagley Estates as a choice residential neighborhood.
The deeds to lots in the subdivision all contain restrictions on
the size and height of house that can be constructed, the setbacks from
property lines, the allowed uses on the lots, and other issues. To enforce
these restrictions and to ensure that the neighborhood developed as a desirable
neighborhood, the early property owners formed the Hagley Estates Property
Owners Association. The association continues to be a vigorous advocate
of neighborhood values by enforcing the deed restrictions and by representing
Hagley Estates on land use issues before the Planning Commission and the County
Council.
(The foregoing history is largely derived from the histories compiled
by Tony Devereux, a current Hagley resident who was also instrumental in
creating the Hagley Estates Property Owners Association and by John Womack;
updated by Tom Stickler)
