This antebellum dwelling is known as Sam Gardner’s house. It was originally a two-room structure similar to Laura Carr’s house in Friendfield Village. According to the National Register of Historic Places, “...its smaller room was enlarged sometime between 1890 and 1905 with board-and-batten siding and wire nails that match the construction materials of Friendfield Church.The shed porch with posts across the facade was probably added at the same time. In about 1925 a shed room with exterior brick flue was added across the rear.”
Sam and Calendar Gardner were the last residents of this small house. Their son, Rainey Gardner, married Nettie Kennedy in Friendfield Church in the 1920s. The two little girls in this picture are dressed up for the wedding.
In 1939, Frank and Maudess McClary and their nine children moved from the small house in Friendfield Village, where they had lived for two years, to this larger house in Barnyard Village. In March, 2015, Robert McClary visited Hobcaw Barony with his wife and daughters. In this video he walks through the house and, sitting on the front steps, recalls some memories of his family’s time there.
Robert McClary visited Hobcaw Barony several times over the years with his family, including his siblings and his mother. In March, 2015, he returned with his wife, Patricia, and his five daughters: Kelly McClary Miller, Dawn J. McClary, Melissa M. Davis, Robin C. McClary and Catherine McClary. The family took part in a four-day program, "Voices of the Village," in which Robert shared his story with hundreds of people in person and online. The McClarys returned to South Carolina in September of that year to participate in the Slave Dwelling Conference in Charleston, at which Robert was a panelist. Robert McClary died on December 15, 2015, at the age of 85.
From his childhood, living in poverty in a small, drafty house without electricity or plumbing, Robert McClary went on to serve in the Army during the Korean War, graduate from college, earn a Master's Degree, and forge a career as an arson investigator for the Detroit Fire Department - only the 13th African American to join the force. In this video Robert's wife and daughters reflect on his early life and its impact on them.
