Armistead Burt's home, now the Burt-Stark Mansion, was built in the 1830's by David Lesley, an Abbeville lawyer and planter who. Burt bought the house in 1862 but, impoverished by the war and its aftermath, and because his wife's health was failing, sold the property and all its furnishings in 1868. In 1900 the house was purchased by James Samuel Stark. In 1971 his daughter, Mary Stark Davis, gave the house, and later the contents, to the Abbeville County Historical Preservation Commission.
Two pieces of furniture have particular historical value: Armistead Burk's desk in the upstairs living room and, in the front upstairs bedroom, a bed Jefferson Davis slept in.
The Burt-Stark Mansion, open to visitors on Friday and Saturday afternoons or by appointment, and is one of the many grand Southern homes lining Main Street, Greenville Street and other downtown neighborhoods.
