OUR VIEW: Expanding History.
Congratulations are in order to the Rosemont Preservation Society for earning a $350,000 SC Conservation Bank grant that allows for land purchase at the Waterloo historic site.
It’s a bit “raw” right now; but brush cutting has been going on, so there could be a possibility that some time, people interested in history could walk the plantation property.
This could be especially important in 2026. That will be the 250th anniversary of the world’s most powerful democracy. How this country came to be will attract historians from all over the world to July 4th - and many other - celebrations.
Rosemont Plantation is the homeplace of Ann Pamela Cunningham, the woman who saved Mount Vernon. As the nation’s first president George Washington’s home teetered on the brink of extinction, she convinced women of the South and the North to pay the mortgage. From $200 raised at the first interest meeting, held in Laurens County, South Carolina, a fund of more than $200,000 grew. A women’s society to care for Mount Vernon grew, also, and is in effect to this very day.
After saving Mount Vernon, Ann Pamela Cunningham came home - to a land where women could not own property in their own names. To a world that barely knew what Historic Preservation was. Then she began perhaps her most daunting task - saving her own home. The plantation house burned in 1930.
Four rows of boxwoods mark the house’s footprint.
And they exist today, thanks to a dedicated group of people who have taken not one cent for their work. They connected with The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Society, which provided immeasurable help. Today, Rosemont Plantation in Waterloo, Lake Greenwood, South Carolina, is going to be 133 acres. Ann Pamela Cunningham turned 205 years-old Aug. 15; the expansion of her homeplace was announced in Laurens Aug. 16.
To honor her memory, the City of Laurens is going to institute the Ann Pamela Cunningham Historic Preservation Award.
Laurens County is growing. We do not want to stop that growth. But, we want it managed - we want to come in a way that is in OUR best interest. We certainly do not want our heritage of fidelity and democracy swept away; thanks to the Rosemont Preservation Society, it won’t be.
