Scavenger Hunt

Please DO NOT run on the grounds or in the buildings. These are found in order of the tour route (yard, slave quarters, basement up through main house).

1. You are looking at the top of the coal chute which held 14 to 16 tons of coal (more than 30,000 pounds or 13,607 kilograms!). Most of the coal stored in the coal chute was used in the fanciest fireplaces in the mansion and also in the coal stove in the kitchen. 

2. You are looking at the lid to the cistern. A cistern holds water like a rain barrel, and the cistern at the Bellamy mansion site holds over 6,000 gallons or over 22,700 liters! This water was not for drinking but for the animals, gardens, laundry, and other cleaning. The drinking water came from the well near the herb garden (with the wooden lid).

​3. You are looking at plaster keys which keep the smooth, plaster walls in place. Plaster begins like wet cement that must grip something else and dry in place. Keys are created by smooshing wet plaster through the wooden boards so the plaster grips the boards.

​4. You are looking into a privy. The privies are above a 7-foot deep privy pit that was used as a trash bin as well as toilets. Two seats in each privy were for children and three were for adults. Can you tell which toilets were for kids and which were for adults? 

5. You are looking at a light fixture known as a gasolier. It never burned candles like a chandelier, but used gas that flowed through the hollow tubes of the gasolier to keep each flame lit. This gasolier has cherubs (baby angels) sitting on top and an elephant on each arm. Can you find the elephants?

6. You are looking at the replica of a painting that Dr. and Mrs. Bellamy’s oldest child, Belle Bellamy, painted. Belle went to school in Columbia, SC, where she learned to paint. She painted all of the paintings you see on this side of the double parlor.

7. You are looking at a wooden potty chair that holds an enamel chamber pot. The Bellamy women and guests did not likely go out to the privies, but used these type of “toilets.” Enslaved workers emptied the chamber pots into the privies before cleaning them and putting them back into the potty chairs. 

8. You are looking at an old wheelchair made from a type of wood called wicker. This was how Ellen Bellamy got around the mansion when she was older and could not walk on her own. This wheelchair is over 100 years old!

9. You are looking at the wooden box that hold the gas pipe and valve key. The gas which lit the mansion’s gasoliers flowed through pipes in the walls, and the T-shaped key could turn off the gas to the entire floor—like an emergency shut off valve.