A National Historic Landmark, it is significant as the home of Robert Barnwell Rhett, a leading secessionist politician.

He opposed John C. Calhoun to lead the Bluffton Movement for separate state action on the Tariff of 1842.

Rhett was one of the leading fire-eaters at the Nashville Convention of 1850, which failed to endorse his aim of secession.

During that time, his son, newspaper editor Robert Barnwell Rhett Jr., also occupied the house.

The man was killed in the Civil War, and no subsequent occupant of the house has reopened the gates to this day; they remain locked shut.