Plum Orchard

A Short History

Sea Island Cotton

Update December 19th 2007

1st Tour Since Renovation

Plum Orchard Short History

Nearing the End Oct. 25, 2007

Update September 28th 2007

Update August 14th 2007

Update August 7th 2007

August Update

Overview of Plum Orchard

Plum Orchard Page 1

1st Story Floor West Side

1st Story Floor East Side

2nd Story Floor West Side

2nd Story Floor East Side

Attic

The Kohler Connection

Elevator

A/C -- 19th Century

Electrical Work

Outbuildings

Ventilation Work

In 1898, "George Carnegie was about to marry fashionable and wealthy Margaret Thaw of Pittsburgh. As his wedding present, his mother intended to assist him with a home on Cumberland Island. Lucy told Peabody and Steams that she proposed building a "simple house on this island, on a site about eight miles from here," with a cost limit of $10,000. On 1 December 1898 Page described the project as "fairly launched." [LLC to Peabody and Stearns, 27 May 1898, CER, folder 3-3003]" [ From “Cumberland Island: A History” by Mary R. Bullard, copyright 2003, University of Georgia Press, page 204.]

This "simple house" consisted of 21,724 square feet after the 1906 additions were made.  Those additions included wings on the East and West ends.  The East wing housed a 12 foot deep swimming pool filled by artesian water and a squash court with viewing balcony.  The Park Service reports that the basement had 6,022, the first floor 7,209, the second floor 5,493, and the attic 3,000 square feet.

The name of the mansion came from an old plantation at that spot. 

Early on, the mansion had its problems.  George Carnegie died in 1921 and his wife, Margaret, married a French peer.  The peer came to Plum Orchard and took almost all the furniture, chandeliers, and gold bath fixtures, as well as George's guns, trophies and books.  He had it all shipped to New York for auction.  The Carnegies informed him that his welcome was over.  [“Cumberland Island: A History” by Mary R. Bullard, copyright 2003, University of Georgia Press., page 149] [11-5-2008: See additional information at the bottom of the page.]

When Nancy and Marius Johnson took over the mansion, they refurnished it mainly from Dungeness. 

"We would go up to Plum Orchard before supper for cocktail hour,” recalled Pebble Rockefeller, Bertha and Andrew II's grandson. "All the grownups—uncles, aunts, cousins—would be there. It was a wonderful smell there of guns and oil, mint and leather from furniture. And then the Kentucky heritage would come out; bourbon was always there in the evening. Aunt Nancy was always fun to see sitting over there in the corner, smoking a cigarette." [p 165, “Cumberland Island: Strong Women Wild Horses” by Charles Seabrook, copyright 2002, Publisher John F. Blair]

[When talking with John Mills, Ornamental Iron Shop, he mentioned that there was a significant Kentucky connection with Plum Orchard. He said that he thought Kentucky contractors did a lot of the construction of Plum Orchard. John’s business is based in Elizabethtown, KY.]

The years rolled on.  Plum Orchard played a prominent part in the Park Service taking over the house and most of the Island.  Charles Fraser purchased a significant part of the Island.  According to Charles Seabrook, "Cumberland Island: Strong Women Wild Horses pages 226-227,

"one family member, got involved in a way she couldn't have imagined. She was Nancy Johnston of Lexington, a pretty girl in her twenties and author of a Sierra Club book. The Carnegies dispatched her to Hilton Head to eyeball how Fraser had developed Sea Pines. Fraser introduced her to a junior executive, Landon Butler. He was infatuated with her and she with him. They ended up marrying. Their wedding and reception were at Plum Orchard, all gussied up for the event. Fraser, being Butler's boss, was an invitee. He showed up at the reception wearing an ascot and lugging a large map case. To the Carnegies' horror, he unstrapped the case during the middle of the affair, laid some maps on the antique mahogany table, and proceeded to tell about his plans for Cumberland. The ladies remembered that he burped a lot as he talked.
In a near panic over Fraser, the heirs revved up their courting of the Park Service. They instructed their Atlanta lawyer, Thornton Morris, to help draw up a bill that would be introduced in Congress to make Cumberland a national park."

The Park Service took over Plum Orchard in 1973 and made it their Island Headquarters.  Unfortunately, the upkeep of the mansion has been a source of contention ever since.  There was a significant effort to make the mansion a "haven for artists".  This, and other efforts to lease the mansion to private concerns, has met with very stiff resistance from people who want the Island to remain as pristine as possible.  Unfortunately, those efforts also rendered the maintenance of the mansion problematic and totally dependent on funding by Congress.  Fortunately, such funding has been found at important times so that the mansion has remained a viable building.  The current restoration/stabilization/updating process is just the last of several to preserve a part of the past that will never return.

[Here is an addendum via email from Mary R. Bullard.]

"George Carnegie's widow, Margaret, sent the contents of the house to an auction house, an action done by all sorts of people, rich and poor. Not the French peer. She had a right to do so. If her Carnegie in-laws criticized her actions, it was because they were too often fond of criticizing other people's actions. "

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