Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 5:15 AM Subject: General AndrewPickens home being unkept and unmaintained by CU GENERAL ANDREWS PICKENS HOME "HOPEWELL" 4-6/2008 It was interesting to see the Old Pendleton Newsletter article on Gen. Andrew Pickens and his home. Hopewell.. However Hopewell is not currently occupied and is in a bad state of repair, witnessed by many pictures I have taken of the home and site. I had been by Hopewell and am currently watching it for the potential for some one to be doing something to keep the home up and as a notable place for maintaining our Heritage in SC. When I visited "Hopewell" I found the brickwork in disrepair, paint was peeling off the outside walls. A room upstairs had the window open and something sticking in it - a pure source for rot. The front porch boards were all loose and not kept in repair. Numerous holes in the boards in the wall, the out building was rusting away. The main roof had been replaced on Hopewell but the front porch roof needs to also be replaced. I did not get a chance to view the interior. To me it said CU is just waiting for it to rot down, so one can say like CU did for Col Simpson's old home outside of Pendleton, "It can't be repaired and needs to be torn down." I personally thinks it is a disgrace for all the money CU gets from the State and other sources, from their documents over $646 Million per year, to not take care of the property. To back up what I say here is another example you can see on Lebanon Road, near Mack Smith's Store in Anderson County, SC. I live about 1/4 mile from this location.. I went by to review the agriculture equipment auction at the Simpson Station on Lebanon Road. Joe Douthit, a true benefactor to Clemson U., had a once stately and well up kept two story home for his residence on the property, not historical in the same aspect as Hopewell, but reminiscent of old SC upstate homes. CU has owned this property since about 1965 when they bought Joe Douthit's old farm from the residue of the payments by the Feds for the Hartwell Lake land CU owned before flooding. They gave $300/acre for the land in 1965. The home has been rented since that time as well as the old Harold Hunnicutt residence on the Douthit station, which is also in need of repair, one example is that the roof is showing rust. I walked around the old Joe Douthit home taking pictures just as I did for the Hopewell place. At Joe Douthit's home it seems no repairs or paint has been used on the place since 1965. The roof is rusting out, mold and moss are about 2 inches thick on other parts of the roof, the front porch is rotting out and buckling, the top deck porch and veranda area is rotting, the whole place needs painting. The chimney has holes showing through it where the grout has fell out. It is a disaster waiting to rot also. I went to OP District Commission. They said it is not our place to do anything. They claimed CU was going to do repairs on Gen. Andrew Pickens home. Well if you look around at the Perks for the faculty and the students at CU you ask yourself what about our Heritage? Are we not proud of General Andrew Pickens to at least save and maintain his old home place? We need someone at CU that cares about SC Heritage. In addition there is no historical marker on the road showing it is Hopewell. There are no markers in the yard or on the home that says it is Hopewell. But having been born here and lived a few years here I and others know it is Hopewell, the home of General Andrew Pickens.. I ask simply why can't General Andrew Pickens old home Hopewell be kept up and maintained, and furnished like Tom Clemson's old home and put on display for all to view who are proud of their SC Heritage? It would make a major historical attraction if handled correctly and maintained. If not please tell me why. Please help get this item on the CU agenda of doing something about it for maintaining our SC Heritage. Herb Hendricks Retired NASA Physicist 2418 Lebanon Road Pendleton, SC 29670 Herb_316@Bellsouth.net 864 2616636 Group Administrator Hendricks DNA Project Secretary Hendricks Family Association Current Research Families; Major, Smith, Craig, Hendricks, Eskew, Rochester Web site = http://www.familytreedna.com/public/hendricks