Fort Hill, a National Historic Landmark, was the home of University founders Thomas Green and Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson and of Anna's parents, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Calhoun. Built in 1803 as a four-room manse for Old Stone Church, it passed to Mrs. Clemson through her mother, Floride Calhoun, who inherited the home and 1,341 acres of land from her mother. By the end of the Civil War, 139 enslaved African-Americans worked the plantation, and African-Americans continued to be a vital force in Fort Hill operations, primarily as sharecroppers and domestics, until Mr. Clemson's death in 1888. The vision of Thomas Green and Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson that led to the founding of Clemson University was made possible by Fort Hill. After the death of his wife and children, Thomas Green Clemson bequeathed his estate to the state to support a “high seminary of learning.” The first meeting of the original Board of Trustees took place under an oak tree on the property. In his last will and testament, Mr. Clemson described his and Anna's vision for the institution and instructed that Fort Hill “shall always be open for the inspection of visitors.”
