Carol and Randolph Updyke

A 30,000-square-foot Georgian manor house with high ceilings, an arcaded loggia, formal entrance hall with sweeping staircase, and substantial brick construction — the architecture has real weight and impressive volume without reaching palatial gilt.

18th-century pine paneling, carved wood moldings, leather-bound books, chintz-covered chairs, linen upholstery, wide plank floors, and Persian rugs create an enveloping tactile warmth throughout every visible room.

Dense layering of hunting paintings, silver collections, Meissen porcelain, botanical prints, chintz patterns, and antique furniture — all in coherent dialogue within a consistent English country house vocabulary, every surface activated but harmonious.

The 1930-31 structure incorporates paneling, fireplace surrounds, and carved corner cupboards all brought from a British country house in 1931; the wallpaper mural was hand-copied from a V&A original, and no visible anachronisms breach the 18th-century English commitment.

The house itself dates to 1930-31 with genuine imported English elements, the property traces to King James II, and the Updykes mix inherited-feeling antiques with pieces found at house sales ('all black and crusty'), though the restoration is recent enough to show some designer polish.

The article describes hunts with eighty people, pig roasts, parties, music, guest bedrooms, a spacious center hall organizing public rooms, and a loggia overlooking the landscape — this is a sporting estate designed to receive and entertain frequently.

Despite the grand scale and Georgian symmetry, the chintz fabrics, family-scale library with comfortable club chairs, and the guest bedroom's sun-drenched casualness suggest rooms that are respected but genuinely lived in by a family with three young sons.

Bennett and Judie Weinstock of Philadelphia made at least a dozen trips to Cherokee to study the lifestyle, and the composed sight lines — symmetrical entrance hall, styled fireplace vignettes, carefully hung hunting paintings — reveal professional designer direction throughout.

The wealth here is substantial but serves plantation tradition rather than audience performance; the Meissen ducks are 'unchipped, just like new' but collected personally, the French bombé cabinet was found at a London auction, and the overall tone is 'if you know, you know' Low Country gentry.