By David Kohen, Photos: S.C. Dept. of Archives and History, NRHP.
Have you ever wondered about the prestigious, creamy-yellow colored Queen Anne-style house that sits by the railroad tracks on South Lake Drive in Lexington? This local landmark of Southern charm and sophistication called the “Cinnamon Hill” house was built in 1892 by Charles Edward Corley (1866-1943). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the “C.E. Corley House” in 1983 and boasts many ornate, original features of the period including wood floors, a gigantic porch with enormous columns, corbeled chimneys, hand-blown glass windows, and several inviting fireplaces. One can only imagine the fancy balls, meetings, dinner parties, celebrations, and elite entertainment that may have taken place on the intimate estate grounds.
Corley, a reputable builder, farmer and public official in Lexington County, served as the county supervisor and magistrate. Charles and his wife, Emily, had six boys and two girls (Annie and Vera) who are all buried at St. Stephens Lutheran Church Cemetery. Annie, who was always afraid of the dark, died in May of 1969; her husband Paul Barr, erected a lamppost near her grave with a memorial plaque. Her sister, Vera never married and remained in the house that would later be known as “Cinnamon Hill” for her entire life, passing in 1969, close to the time that the house was initially sold. The last Corley child was Christopher who died in 1995.
Are you wondering why the house is called the Cinnamon Hill House? Donald and Sharon Marchant bought and restored the home in the early 1970s. Sadly, Donnie passed away after a brief illness at 40 years of age, leaving Sharon with two young boys, Andy and Will. When Melissa Kyzer opened a gift shop on Columbia Avenue in Lexington in 1986, she arbitrarily selected “Cinnamon Hill” for the name. One day Sharon visited the store and she and Melissa instantly became friends. Sharon proposed they become business partners and move the shop into her house on South Lake Drive. They made a few renovations; the house perfectly accommodated the gift shop and maintained the name of Cinnamon Hill.
Andy and Will, Sharon’s two sons, spent their childhood on the grounds of Cinnamon Hill, where several original structures remain in addition to the house such as a smokehouse, a woodshed, and a one-room cabin where a groundskeeper once lived. Although the two boys enjoyed exploring the property and playing, Andy recalls a frightening situation that gave them quite a scare. Upon opening a closet door for the first time, a creepy white nightgown hanging from above presented the appearance of a dead person, a spirit, or an apparition. That experience could have possibly started the tall tales and legends we hear today of the house being haunted.
Melissa Kyzer vividly recalls an unsettling experience while trying to close the gift shop one day. Her two daughters, Lane and Lacy, were upstairs; when Melissa went to call them downstairs, she saw the figure of a petite person with large eyes at the top of the stairs. She can only describe the vision as a “person made of fog.” When she climbed the stairs, it disappeared. When Sharon saw Melissa, she said she looked like she had seen a ghost—was it Vera? There were many other unexplained events reported, such as the sound of dishes being washed through the intercom system and finding cabinets open that were previously closed.
Andy Marchant became a well-known restauranteur and was a former chef for Governor Mark Sanford. In 1988 he and his friends Cole Taylor and Mike Fusco had the idea implanted in their minds by Sharon that they should open a restaurant at Cinnamon Hill along with the existing gift shop. Builder Nick Pizzutti remodeled the back part of the house and added a commercial kitchen. The restaurant was extremely successful at fine dining in Lexington for 11 years until it closed in 1999; the gift shop closed in 1993. Today Andy runs a catering and event business called the “Cinnamon Hill Kitchen” on North Church Street in Lexington.
Sharon sold the house to Stan and Donna Miller in 2007 where they lived upstairs and opened their gift shop, “Miller’s LTD at Cinnamon Hill.” Their son, Joel Miller, and Denise Kendrick opened “Vera’s Veranda”, a lunch café. However, the mysterious occurrences continued while the Millers occupied the house. Donna speaks of a lighted display case in their shop that contained a glass nativity scene. On multiple occasions when they opened the shop and turned on the display case, one of the shepherd figurines was facing backward. Donna also saw a “white foggy cloud” pass by the balcony window. She said that when they first bought the house, aware of the tales, someone told her, “You’re okay with Vera as long as you don’t bring hard liquor into the house.” They never did! Vera’s Veranda operated from 2014 until the Millers sold the house to an investment firm, KPJ (Kinard/Patrick/Jones) in 2016.
Several years later, Dawn LaRocque established the elegant “Cinnamon Hill House & Gardens” as a bridal event venue for a few years; local attorneys Murry Kinard and Ashby Jones opened an office there in 2019. The Kinard Law Group (Murry Kinard, Katherine Fisher, Rebekah Mandeville, Alyssia Iglesias) is currently located at Cinnamon Hill. Murry recalls several mysterious events as well. One day a client came in and said he dreamed that an animal had died in the house. Later that same day another client was in the house and happened to glance into a room with a fireplace and randomly blurted out, “A dog died in that fireplace.” Sometime later Murry said he heard a dog and then saw a dog lunge itself at the front door. When he went to investigate, it was gone. During another occurrence, Ashby had a fan on her desk and when she left the room and returned, the fan was on the floor. She put it back on the desk, walked to another room, and returned to find it on the floor again. Perhaps one of the most disturbing elements of the house is featured in a 2022 motion detector video portraying a white, cloudy orb flowing and moving within one of the rooms.
The strange happenings, weird sounds and amazing sightings at Cinnamon Hill have subsided over the past several years; maybe Vera is now happily resting in peace! Our Town Magazine is delighted to bring you informative and entertaining articles featuring properties from the National Register of Historic Places. We ask that you join us in respecting the privacy of the owners as most of these sites are not open to the public. Please remember that not all properties retain the same integrity as when originally documented and listed due to changes, restorations and modifications. We will always cherish Lexington County’s rich history and the intriguing tales passed from generation to generation that cause us to pause and ponder the past.
