Collectively, the Laurens County 250 Revolutionary War Sestercentennial Committee, the Laurens County Trails Association and the Rosemont Preservation Society wishes to invite all to attend the official ribbon cutting ceremony of the “Rosemont Trail” on November 6th at 11:00 A.M. located at 1875 Shrine Club Road in the Waterloo area of Lake Greenwood.
A master plan was created in previous years declaring that The Rosemont Preservation Society’s mission is for the preservation of and future development of the Rosemont site. The Rosemont Preservation Society secured one hundred thirty three acres from an initial donation from the Niles Clark family. Additional property was purchased with a South Carolina Conservation Bank grant of three hundred fifty thousand dollars. Laurens County Council provided a fifty thousand dollar grant to the Laurens County Trails Association to pay for the recent improvements.
The continued development of the Rosemont Plantation includes the recognition of the Rosemont Plantation as an American Revolutionary War site by the Laurens County American Revolutionary War Sestercentennial Committee. In doing this, the site is included with the tours of many other sites within Laurens County identified as battlegrounds and forts.
A another part of the overall plan, it was to enable constructing a way to access the property and allowing for parking and walking trails. The actual Rosemont Trail begins directly at the parking lot and on to the house site where a monument was placed in 1959 in honor of Ann Pamela Cunningham, America's first historic preservationist. Ann Pamela Cunningham was born on the plantation and eventually inherited the property from her father, Captain Robert Cunningham and managed it during the Civil War. She also led the effort to restore Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington.
HISTORY – The Rosemont Plantation was the two thousand acre plantation home of Loyalist Revolutionary War Captain, Patrick Cunningham, the wealthiest planter in that era of Laurens County. It is also was the home of Louisa Bird Cunningham (Patrick’s daughter in law) and his granddaughter, Ann Pamela Cunningham. The plantation house burned in 1930 and very few ruins remain. Louisa Cunningham planted a thirty-acre garden at this site which now still stands with thirty feet of old boxwood alee’s, as well as other historic plants from this time period.
Ann Pamela Cunningham is the most famous resident of Rosemont. She founded the Mt Vernon Ladies Association and raised two hundred thousand dollars in the 1850s to purchase and save Mt. Vernon. Mt Vernon was the first historic preservation project ever in the United States.
SPONSORED BY:
ROSEMONT PRESERVATION SOCIETY
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