our story

The Inn at Magnolia Hill has a rich history of serving as a site of welcoming hospitality. Its origins go back to soon after the founding of Pendleton, South Carolina in 1791. It is believed to be the original site of the very first building constructed in Pendleton, a log cabin trading post located on the then buffalo, American Indian, and settler trail, which is now known as Vance Street. 

In 1804 the Lorton house was built on E. Queen Street. Originally two houses were connected to serve as a sprawling 18–room boarding house owned by Thomas Lorton Jr., a well known Inn and Tavern keeper, and husband of Mrs. Frances Lorton. 

The property transferred their son, John Smith Lorton who married widowed Amanda Whitner Kilpatrick. John Lorton was a well-respected merchant serving the Pendleton area. His stepdaughter Clara Kilpatrick Lorton eventually married SC legislator, James Overton Livingston. His stepson, Whitner Kilpatrick, was killed during the Civil War at the Battle of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, TN and is buried with John and Amanda within the Lorton family burial site in the nearby Old Stone Church cemetery. 

The original home burned in the early 1840s and was replaced in 1843 with the house now known as Magnolia Hill. Built by a master craftsman known as “Uncle Adam” this second house had a four-square floor plan with wooden walls and ceilings. Multiple buildings were also onsite and included a smoke house (still visible in back of the house), a large barn, two privies - male and female and various other buildings. In the 1850’s Amanda Lorton returned from visiting family in Florida with a Magnolia tree sapling which is located at the right side of the house. Currently measuring over 75 feet tall, it is believed to be the oldest living Magnolia in the Upstate of SC. 

Inside the home the original ceilings can be seen on the first floor in the parlor and dining rooms. The original flooring is located on the second floor in the hallway and bedrooms. The original wood walls are still beneath the plaster walls throughout the house. A hand-carved cellar has served the house since the beginning - original walls and stairs lead into the red clay cellar. In 1960, the brick exterior was added and porches were removed. The original home photograph can be seen hanging in the great hall. 

The first child to be born in the new home was Ella Frances Lorton. She became close friends with Floride Clemson, daughter of Thomas Greene and Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson. The two often had tea together in the home’s front parlor. In 1876 after Floride’s death, Ella would become stepmother to Floride’s daughter, Isabella, and the wife of Gideon Lee. 

The Civil War spared Pendleton, SC but during the hard times after the war the Lorton home once again become a place of lodging and hospitality. Amanda and Ella Lorton once again began taking in boarders and weary travelers. 

After years of existing as a private residence for many well-respected Pendletonians, the Inn at Magnolia Hill was created in 2021. Once again it is a place of caring for others - just as it was over 200 hundred years ago.