Stephanie Cohen
Park Manager
Hello! My name is Stephanie Cohen, and I am the park manager of Rose Hill Plantation. I am a proud, "accidental" park ranger, as I had never thought of being a park ranger for a career, until I became a park interpreter. I will admit, that I am glad I found this career, and I love being a park ranger!
I really enjoy that Rose Hill is so peaceful. It is the only place I have ever seen chipmunks run around freely as birds flutter by. The history of the site is heavy and trauma filled. The contrast of a serene landscape is jarring, but also a remarkable place to reflect and remember.
If you're a first-time visitor to the park, you should definitely walk the half-mile loop trail, if able. The shaded trail is surrounded by trees, and at many points if you just stop and listen, you will hear nothing but nature. It is easy to imagine what it would been like hundreds of years ago as people walked these grounds.
**Our Ultimate Outsider stamp is located at the park kiosk near the parking area.
Debates swirled around slavery and divided the nation during William Henry Gist’s term as governor of South Carolina (1858-1860). These debates reached a turning point with anti-slavery presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln’s election, causing Governor Gist to declare: “The only alternative left, in my judgment, is the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.”
Today, Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site is a place to learn about important themes and key events in South Carolina’s history: the cotton boom and its collapse, secession and Civil War, slavery and sharecropping, emancipation and the fight for civil rights and Reconstruction and its violent overthrow.
The site provides visitors with opportunities to discover these significant stories through the perspectives of people who lived at Rose Hill, including William Henry Gist and his family, enslaved people, freedpeople and tenant farmers.
Things to do at Rose Hill include touring one of the best preserved plantation homes of the South, walking the historic landscaped grounds and exploring an original brick kitchen. The site also includes short hiking trails through the forest and to the Tyger River.
Programs and special events are held at Rose Hill year-round. Find something that interests you! Don’t miss the other historic plantations South Carolina has to offer!
