207 Hancock Street

Located in the Old Point neighborhood in the historic riverside town of Beaufort, SC, Riverview is one of the town's premiere historic homes. Gas lanterns, Old Savannah Gray bricks and double porches add to the ambiance of this unique waterfront estate. The main house consists of four bedrooms and four and half baths; two living rooms, a spacious dining room and modern eat-in kitchen; in addition there are four fireplaces and a balcony over-looking the beautiful riverfront pool, patio and private dock. A separate guest house includes two guest suites each offering a bedroom and bath, one suite features a full kitchen, the other includes a recreation room that opens to the pool. The grounds and gardens feature separate outdoor rooms, while a pierced brick wall surrounds the estate to create an abundance of privacy in the heart of downtown Beaufort.

Historical Significance
Built in 1720, Riverview, or The Elizabeth Hext House, is set well back from the street on a high tabby foundation. The Hext house is considered to be one of the oldest houses in Beaufort. The original house consisted of upper and lower piazzas, a narrow central hall flanked by two rooms on the main floor, and a rear hall and staircase which led to two bedrooms upstairs. A quality of intimacy pervades the house due to its relatively small scale when compared to the houses of the later antebellum period. The two front rooms have wainscot paneling around three walls with floor-to-ceiling paneling on the exterior fireplace walls. Many of the windows have the original six-over-nine light panes and retain much of the old glass. The floor boards in all but the present kitchen and back hall are of ten inch wide first-growth pine planks. Interior walls are the thickness of only one plank, which indicates that the house is supported mainly by the exterior walls.

Elizabeth Hext, the only child of Francis Hext, Jr. and Elizabeth Stanyarne was born in 1746. At the age of fifteen she married William Sam of Wadmalaw Island, grandson of "Tuscarora Jack" Barnwell. In 1783 he bought Dataw Island, near Beaufort, and here they lived and raised a large family. When Elizabeth Hext Sam died in 1813, she was buried beside her husband on Datha Island. The Hext House remained in the Sam family until 1864 when it was sold for $640 by the U.S. Tax Commission