Modern Times

The property was sold to International Paper Company in 1945 and then Colonel Reading Wilkinson and his wife purchased the house and a few acres in 1947, and modernized with plumbing, heat and electricity. Their son, Phillip Wilkinson, recalls there was an elderly black woman living in one of the cabins near the house when he moved there as a young boy.  There were still three slave cabin standing and an old man was living in one of the cabins, still plowing the corn field with an ox. 

When the house was modernized, the cabinets in the kitchen were made from wood from the attic and two bathrooms were added to the upstairs.

After Mrs. Wilkinson was widowed and her children grown, she traded houses in 1969 with Jim and Helen Maynard.  Mrs. Wilkinson moved to Meeting Street in Georgetown and Mr. and Mrs. Maynard moved to Hopsewee Plantation with their two daughters Cassie and Betts.  The Maynards obtained the National Historic Landmark status of the property in 1972 and opened their home as a house museum.  The Maynards purchased some of the original acreage of the plantation so that now there are 70 acres  in the Hopsewee property.  The Maynards were approached by many developers who desired to develop the riverfront property.  However, the Maynards were reluctant to see the property they loved and cherished for thirty years suffer this fate.  In the Fall of 2000, understanding the property had been sold, Frank Beattie stopped by Hopsewee to wish the Maynards well.  When the Maynards told him they had not sold the property to a developer and wanted someone to have the property who would love it the way it had been for the past 260 years, he was pleased to take on the responsibility of caring for Hopsewee.
Frank and his wife, Raejean, view their ownership of Hopsewee Plantation as a gift from God and a trust to the people of South Carolina and the United States.  

The house and grounds remain open to the public.  Be sure you see Hopsewee Plantation on the South Carolina coast.