Page 35 - Lachicotte 2020

became owner of the part that included the rice mills and the plantation house while
St. Julien became owner of the part that included a lumber mill, which he managed.
Eventually, rice production in the Tidelands waned due to the high cost of
production and intense competition from rice producers in other parts of the world.
The Waverly Rice Mills ceased operations in 1911 and the buildings were
later razed.
Modern Times
Waverly remained in the Lachicotte family until the early 2000s when The
Lachicotte Company developed the remainder of the old plantation into a non-
gated community, dividing some of the property for homes and placing the rest in a
conservation easement. Arthur Herbert “Doc” Lachicotte, Jr. grew up at Waverly,
even attending school in a building on the property. Doc Lachicotte later had the
school building and the Waverly post office building moved to the Hammock Shops
and restored. They now serve as shops within this complex.
When St. Julien Lachicotte received his property in 1896, he built his house on
a high bluff overlooking the ricefields, within a grove of towering live oaks. Upon
his death in 1933, St. Julien's heirs sold the house and property outside the family
and a subsequent buyer, Capt. William Ancrum, named the property Rossdhu. A
real estate partnership purchased the property in the 1970s and divided it into large
lots. Today, Rossdhu is a private community bordered by a large tract of preserved
land and situated on historic ricefields and a canal only a short distance to the
Waccamaw River.

Waverly Rice Mills

843.237.2094 | www.lachicotte.com Plantations | Lords Proprietors 31