1542 Louis Leconte Road
Alwehav
In 1815, James Hopkins, one of several Sand Hills area planters, built this house amidst the property’s roughly 1,800 acres. Hopkins daughter, Mrs. Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins Brevard, inherited the house in 1844 when her father passed away. At that time she called it the Brevard House. Later, she moved the structure to the top of the hill and renamed it Brevard Place. Keziah enlarged the property in 1850 as she added several parlors and bedrooms. Keziah also kept a meticulous journal that recorded her life in Lower Richland in 1860 and 1861 that provides historians with insight into the life of a planter class woman as well as the individuals she enslaved.
-
![Alwehav, 1997.]()
Alwehav, 1997. Historic Columbia collection
The house was renamed Alwehav in 1903 when Caroline Adams LeConte purchased the property at a public auction. Caroline restored the property and gardens and lived there with her son, Louis, and daughter, Eva. The gardens became a big draw for horticulturalists as the house had a wide variety of magnolias, including the Magnolia Pyramidata. In 1986, the house was listed in the National Register of Historic Place and the land was placed under the Department of Natural Resource’s Heritage Trust Program to protect the site's natural cultural resources.