Arson blamed for fire that destroyed historic home on Georgia plantation site

DARIEN, Ga. (AP) — Authorities have charged a man with starting a fire that destroyed a nearly century-old home on the site of a former rice plantation in coastal Georgia. McIntosh County Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Ward said in a news release Friday that a 33-year-old man was charged with arson, theft and other crimes after being questioned by investigators. The arrest came after flames engulfed the historic Huston House built in 1927 by T.L. Huston, who had been a co-owner of the New York Yankees. The house was located on the former rice plantation of Pierce Mease Butler, who in 1859 infamously sold more than 400 enslaved people in what is considered the largest slave auction in U.S. history.