Red Doe Plantation

Red Doe Plantation

Location: 1132 Francis Marion Rd., Florence, SC 29506

In 1839, John Gregg gave his 1,005-acre plantation to his son Evander Gregg, who was 18 years old. John’s younger son, J. Eli owned the neighboring Gregg Plantation.

Evander’s plantation home was built sometime between 1839 and 1846. It is a one-story frame farmhouse on a raised brick foundation and is an example of a traditional raised Carolina cottage with its basement and porch form.

In 1860, Gregg still owned only 650 acres of the original land and enslaved 38 people who primarily grew cotton. Heowned the land until 1867, when he sold it and moved following the American Civil War. 

The land was purchased by Robert Legare and Sarah Jane Evans Singletary. Legare was a Captain in the 8th Infantry for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Both of them are buried at the Hopewell Presbyterian Church Cemetery, which is also a point of interest on this tour.

Next, the land would be passed on to Joseph Wallace and his wife Sallie Gregg Wallace. The couple owned Florence Dry Goods in Mars Bluff and were members of St. John’s Episcopal Church, also featured on this tour. 

Wallace then sold the house to his brother-in-law, Reverend Thomas Hartwell Edwards, who then deeded it to Joseph Wallace’s three sons: Walter, Marion Chisholm, and Joseph, Jr. 

In the 1930s, Joseph Wallace, Jr., the middle son, began calling the plantation Red Doe. This was in reference to a Revolutionary War incident when Patriot scout Andrew Hunter escaped on a horse named “Red Doe” belonging to Loyalist Colonel David Fanning. In 1782, Colonel Fanning captured Hunter while he was scouting in North Carolina. Hunter managed to pull off a daring escape by stealing Fanning´s horse and taking his saddle, holsters, pistols, and papers. After the war, Hunter went on to work in the South Carolina House of Representatives and served on commissions for roads, navigation, and a new courthouse and jail.

The house was restored between 1940 and 1941 by Marion Chisholm Wallace and his wife Annie Pearce Wallace. Marion was the great-grandnephew of Evander Gregg. After many years, the Red Doe Plantation continuously found itself in the hands of the Gregg family. The Wallaces renovated the property. It was featured in the Florence Homes and Gardens Tour in 1967, and the Wallaces received the Florence Harllee Silver Cup Award for its preservation efforts in 1979. In 1982, 9 acres of the plantation were added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Then, in 2006, Robert Wilkins donated the land to a nonprofit organization, the Pee Dee Rifles, a local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, for preservation. They hoped to make it into a museum, but the group was unable to raise enough funds. However, the group did host annual “living history” events at the plantation for several years. Funny enough, the Pee Dee Region Paranormal investigators even visited Red Doe in 2007.

In 2009, Florence City and the County Historical Commission erected a historical marker on the site, which you are encouraged to read.

In 2014, restoration work began on the property with grant money from the South Carolina Department of Transportation, with the help of the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation, and focused on stabilizing the stairs and cypress columns. The Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation also helped fund the museum and library that are featured on this tour.

In 2017, the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation put the plantation up for sale at $150,000. Bought by Chelsea and Josh Guthrie, the plantation is now called Red Doe Farm & Events. As recently as 2021, the site has been used as a venue for weddings and other special occasions.

To learn more about the property you can