McLeod Plantation: An overview

ORIGINS: A map in 1695, 25 years after Charles Towne was founded, lists it as a 617-acre plantation owned by Morgan Morris along the Wappoo and Stono rivers.

CROPS: The property once was one of the state's largest Sea Island cotton plantations. In the 20th century, crops included potatoes and asparagus, and the plantation had dairy cattle.

NAMESAKE: William W. McLeod, an Edisto Island cotton planter, bought the property in 1851 and built the present plantation house. He was killed in 1864 during the Civil War.

SLAVES: Varied in number throughout its history, but the 1860 Census listed 74 slaves in 26 dwellings on the property.

WAR HISTORY: Federal troops used the plantation as a hospital and officers' quarters in February 1865. After the war, about 20,000 freed slaves were housed temporarily on its grounds, and the house served as the county's Freedman's Bureau.

MAIN HOUSE: Built in 1856, remodeled in 1925.

OUTBUILDINGS: More than nine, including five frame slave cabins, a kitchen, dairy, gin house and barn.

CURRENT SIZE: About 40 acres.

RECENT HISTORY: The Historic Charleston Foundation inherited the property from Willie McLeod upon his death in 1990. By 1993, it had bought out the interest of others who also were deeded an interest. The foundation later sold McLeod to the American College of the Building Arts, which lacked enough money to relocate its campus there and returned the property to the foundation, paving the way for the pending deal with the College of Charleston.