Parnassus was once called Mount Parnassus and was once the home of Zachariah Villepontoux, a wealthy Huguenot and a vestryman of St. James Church. He was said to have furnished the brick for St. Michael's Church in Charleston from his Parnassus plantation. In 1842 the plantation was the property of Dr. Charles Tennent and remained so until Reconstruction.

          Dr. John B. Irving visited Parnassus in the 1960's. He found little remaining save a giant oak and the remains of an avenue which led for nearly a mile toward Goose Creek. A few magnolias, rose vines and other garden flowers still remain. Parnassus had not been affected by the Civil War until late 1865, but the war had forced all except Mrs. Tennent and her daughters to abandon the plantation. A band of marauding Negor troops invaded the house and demanded dinner, which caused the Tennents to leave the next day. This left the house to be ransacked and vandalized. Shortly thereafter, smallpox drove the marauders from the plantation, but not before the home was ruined.

          After the war Parnassus was sold by the Tennent family. One group of owners further damaged the place. They cut the walk of cedar trees and looted the brick from the house and graveyard. Today there remain only remnants of the grave markers. On the Negro burying ground is reportedly a stone which marks the grave of a nurse of the Nennent family. The inscription reads, "Bella, a faithful servant".

Source: Historic Goose Creek, South Carolina, 1670-1980 by: Michael J. Heitzler. Copyright © 1983. Reproduced on this web site with permission from the author.