Hampstead Memories

IMG_1875The Henry Faber House on East Bay Street is one of the grand structures from the golden era of Hampstead Hill. This low bluff overlooking the Cooper River was built up in the early 19th century by rice planters from Georgetown, including Faber, who added this Greek Revival building in 1836. Faber’s house was one of many used as a soldiers’ hospital during the Civil War, largely because it had a large cistern and was a long distance from the Federal siege guns on Morris Island. After the war, the area fell on hard times, and many of the old homes were destroyed as Hampstead was industrialized with a massive cotton processing factory built down the street in 1881. The factory was converted to cigar-making in 1907, and employed hundreds of blacks who had crowded into the Hampstead area after the Civil War. The Faber house property came under black ownership and became the Hamitic Hotel, where such notable figures as W.E.B. DuBois would stay. By the 1940’s, more buildings were cleared for housing projects, and after the Hamitic Hotel closed, the Faber House was marked for demolition in 1946, but was saved by preservationists and now stands a lonely sentinel over the faded glory of Hampstead Hill

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