Park Avenue, Sumter, South Carolina

When I recently wrote about the dovecotes of Livarot in France, I was surprised that pigeons weren't the most popular thing there. That's because they're the most popular thing here in Sumter, South Carolina, instead.

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Sumter is home to the Palmetto Pigeon Plant. Their dovecotes are a little more industrial looking. They're the largest producer of pigeons, squab, poussin, Cornish game hens and Silkie chickens in the world, and they've been around since 1923. 

Four miles south, as the pigeon flies, is the Hampton Historic district, containing this gem of a house built around 1900 on Park Avenue.

If it were mine, it would look like this:

{Ashley Whittaker}

I've paired a few rooms in this house with designer Ashley Whittaker. She has Southern Living down pat.

From the living room to the dining room...

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and even down to the tiles on the den's fireplace, Ashley has a design that beautifully coordinates. 

The kitchen, back porch and powder room need a little more attention, but they have historic appeal:

Upstairs there are four bedrooms and two more bathrooms to fill out the house's 3,266 square feet.

That brings us to my favorite element, the sleeping porch. Who needs a dovecote when you can have a space like this?

The listing says there's also a cottage (and another outbuilding?) on the property, but doesn't give us interior views. It apparently has its own separate electric and water hookups, though.

Sumter is named for General Thomas Sumter, of course, and lies about an hour and 45 minutes northwest of Fort Sumter. It was first established as Sumterville in 1845 and shortened its name ten years later. While it was still Sumterville it had a cool old map...

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but it didn't have quite as many landmarks as a map of a later vintage (the Pigeon Plant wasn't there yet.):

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As you can see on the map, the Park Avenue house is across the street from pretty Memorial Park.

Not a bad view from that big front porch. 

General Sumter was known as the "Fighting Gamecock" for his fierce fighting style. Good thing his fame predates the Palmetto Pigeon Plant, or he might have gone down in history just a little differently.

The Old House Dreams listing is here.