The Rhett House Inn, is a bed and breakfast hotel with a history related to the American Civil War. It’s more commonly known as the Secession House or the Maxcy-Rhett house. The Secession House which still stands in Beaufort South Carolina.

The house was built (circa 1810) for Milton Maxcy (1782-1817), who came to Beaufort from Massachusetts in 1804. In the 1850’s Edmund Rhett (1808-1863), a lawyer, planter, state representative, and state senator, brought the house and extensively remodeled it in the Greek Revival style, featuring an elaborate two-story portico.

Secession House History:
Edmund Rhett, along with his brother Robert Barnwell Rhett (1800-1876), was an outspoken champion of state rights and Southern nationalism This house, long known as “Secession House,” was the scene of many informal discussions and formal meetings during the 1850’s by the Rhetts and their allies advocating secession and Southern independence which lead to the formation of the confederacy and the civil war. The houses of Beaufort survived the war where many others were burned due to the occupation of Beaufort by the Union Army. Many of the houses were used as hospitals and quarters for the union troops. After the war many homes were sold for back taxes.

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