Do You Know Your Lowcountry? The Bennett Rice Mill

Jan 16, 2024

The Union Pier plan features a park and promenade built around the historic Bennett Rice Mill façade. File/Gavin McIntyre/Staff

Knowing your Charleston history is important in times like these.

Much of The Post and Courier's Feb. 26 A section laid out the myriad opportunities and concerns surrounding redevelopment of Union Pier, 64 acres along the peninsula's east side that "has been described as a gem … the most desirable waterfront land in the Southeast, possibly the entire East Coast."

While any analysis of such a complex issue is well above my paygrade, an appreciation of the site's history could guide us in addressing one of the most important issues that we, as a community, will face during our lifetime as stewards of the Holy City.

Current plans call for about 19 acres of open space with a public park anchored by the restored ruins of the Bennett Rice Mill façade. In my experience, when newcomers to our city see the odd, dilapidated brick wall now propped up in the middle of the vast parking lot along Concord Street, they inevitably ask, "What is that thing?" When I explain, their next inquiry is why such a far-gone architectural remnant is worth preserving. Here's why.

The remaining façade of the Bennett Rice Mill is a visible reminder that throughout the 18th and into the 19th centuries, the cultivation and export of rice made the Carolina Lowcountry one of the wealthiest regions in America, with more than 66 million pounds harvested annually and shipped around the world in the years leading up to the American Revolution. Bennett's mill epitomized the wealth, strength and power of these antebellum rice planters, beneficiaries of an industry built on enslaved labor, as will soon be interpreted at the International African American Museum just a couple blocks north of its ruins.

Furthermore, architectural historians consider the mill to have been one of America's finest examples of 19th century industrial architecture. The owner of three thriving plantations, former S.C. Gov. Thomas Bennett was probably the architect of the imposing Classical Revival structure he built in 1844, with Palladian windows and brick columns featuring stone caps and lintels.

The Bennett Rice Mill, between East Bay, Hasell, Concord and Laurens streets, in Charleston. Library of Congress/Provided

Operations began in 1845, using the latest steam-powered technologies to separate rice grains from their husks. That, along with its waterfront location, allowed Bennett's mill to produce some 200 bushels a day, making it one of the most productive mills in America.

Despite its vulnerable harbor-front location, it continued to operate throughout the Civil War. Afterward, of course, the Lowcountry's rice industry, and thus its mills, was greatly diminished. Bennett's mill processed rice on a much smaller scale until 1911, when a major hurricane flooded out the Lowcountry's last few rice fields. Bennett's heirs sold the mill shortly thereafter and it served brief stints as a Planters Peanut and Chocolate Co. factory and later a warehouse for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co., until a 1938 tornado blew off most of its roof. 

The industrial edifice began to die. Neglect and exposure compromised its bricks and mortar, and its walls began to crumble. The mill was condemned in 1952 and its most dangerous sections demolished by the city as a safety precaution.

By that time, however, preservation had become a tenet of Charleston's culture, and many fought to save the old mill. Nevertheless, neither funds nor a viable use for the property were found. In 1958, the S.C. Ports Authority purchased the property as part of its Union Pier facility and worked with preservationists to conserve what remained. But it was not to be. 

Another tornado, this one in 1960, an F3 spawned as Hurricane Donna passed east of Charleston's coastline, brought down everything but the mill's western façade. The Ports Authority assuaged preservationists’ alarm by stabilizing the last remaining wall with an unattractive, but effective, steel frame that miraculously held up even during Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Despite some limited conservation efforts, it has continued to deteriorate in the years since.

In its response to Union Pier's redevelopment plans, Historic Charleston Foundation listed the preservation and readapted use of the Bennett Rice Mill wall among its seven "key concepts" for the site. Now, the next chapter in its history is about to be written by us.

Leigh Jones Handal is a licensed and certified Charleston Tour Guide and member of The Palmetto Guild. Handal can be reached at [email protected].

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