R.T. Wilson, Jr., financier and horse racing aficionado, commissioned Palmetto Bluff in 1910 on land that his financier father purchased in the late 1800s.  It was an elaborate 72-room mansion replete with indoor plumbing and other luxuries.  For more than a decade, the home held grand parties, until a fire destroyed most of the structure in 1926.

S. Harris & Co. was called on for Design Professional services during the stabilization of the Wilson Mansion ruins, on the site of the Palmetto Bluff development in South Carolina.  The romantic ruins of the mansion serve as the centerpiece for the planning community development.

Remaining columns and masonry walls presented structural and safety hazards too great for the town square.  S. Harris & Co. conducted an existing conditions survey, carefully documenting and assessing each major element of the mansion ruins.  Working closely with Brockton and Associates, Inc. the elements were removed from their original positions and stored, and the site was excavated.  The column that still stood at its original height could not be stabilized inn place, so S. Harris & Co. devised a complicated procedure to pull the column down as it would have fallen naturally over time.  The site was graded, portions of the foundation walls were exposed at grade level to illustrate the footprint of the grand house, and masonry walls were repaired.  Finally, elements that had been moved were places back into their original positions along with the piece of the felled column, and the site was landscaped and lit.

Click here to read "In Pursuit of Authenticity"

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--S. Harris & Co. Comprehensive Project List--