Fort Hill is the historic house at the centre of Clemson University's origin story. It was home to John C. Calhoun, one of the most forceful defenders of slavery in American politics, and later to Thomas Green Clemson, whose bequest helped create the university.
The house is worth visiting because it makes the campus history harder and more specific. Clemson is not just a pretty college town; Fort Hill puts plantation wealth, politics and education in the same rooms.