It will take more than cookies to fix up this house

CORDESVILLE —Camp Low Country is one of the few scout camps with a whimsical mansion at its center, but the grand 1927 hunting lodge built by E.F. Hutton co-founder George Ellis has proven to be both a blessing and a curse.

Ellis acquired Richmond Plantation in the early 20th century and was yet another wealthy northerner who bought and reinvented a struggling southern plantation.

The property's historic house had burned to the ground around 1900, and Ellis hired New York architects Clinton and Russell to design a manor, guest house, kennel, gate house and carriage house in a Tudor-revival style (some also refer to as "Shavian Manor Style")

The buildings were brick, possibly salvaged from a Charleston theater, and featured steeply pitched slate roofs, steel casement windows and other seemingly Medieval touches. It made a grand if eclectic camping facility when Camp Low Country first opened in 1963.

After Hurricane Hugo damaged the roof in 1989, the council began using the house less and less often. Today, it remains boarded up, and a recent tour of the house exposed both its grandeur and its problems.

The Friends of Richmond Plantation will give an overview of its past and future Thursday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Charleston County Library Auditorium, 68 Calhoun St. in hopes of raising awareness — and ultimately money —for its repair.

Read more in Monday's Architecture and Preservation column.