AIKEN --- The history of an old home in Aiken, complete with a carriage and re-enactors dressed in period costume, is being relived so it can be preserved on film.

On Saturday, shooting started at the University of South Carolina Aiken for the docudrama Edgewood: Stage of Southern History -- a feature on the 1829 house originally known as Edgewood that now houses USC Aiken's Office of the Chancellor and University Advancement.

It is also known as the Pickens-Salley House for its connection to Lucy Pickens, the wife of secessionist governor Francis W. Pickens, and to Eulalie Salley, a crusader for women's rights in the 1920s and '30s.

Deidre Martin, the film's executive producer and USC Aiken's vice chancellor for advancement, said SCETV has expressed interest in the film. Plans include area showings with a long-term goal of having a middle school curriculum developed around it.

"We're covering just under 200 years of history," Ms. Martin said. "The house was a stage. The characters of history moved through this house, from the governor of South Carolina to the leaders of the Confederacy."

Saturday's shoot was just the start of filming, and several more shoots are planned throughout Aiken and Edgefield in the coming days.

Ms. Martin said that because Edgewood is now used as office space for USC Aiken, other locations that have an indoor setting befitting the time frame being represented also are being used.

"There were so many interesting stories of all the people affected by the house, and so we're looking at it from anyone (involved)," she said. "So it's even the slaves who were associated with the house; we want to tell their story as well."

Ms. Martin said Edgewood has quite a history, including the fact that it has been moved twice, first from its original site near Edgefield and then from an Aiken site to the USC Aiken campus.

It's said that Eulalie Salley fell in love with the home in the late 1920s and had the then-fading structure moved board by board and reassembled in Aiken using a numbering system.

Before that, the plantation-style house had been abandoned for many years.

But in the 1800s, Ms. Martin said, it was a hub for Confederate officials during the Civil War because it was the home of slave-owning Francis Pickens, who became governor in 1860, and his wife, Lucy, who was known as the "Queen of the Confederacy" and was the only woman featured on Confederate currency.

As part of the filming, Ms. Martin said, a Lucy Pickens re-enactor from Florence has agreed to participate.

"She is really into Lucy, to do it right, knows how she wore her hair, has clothes made from what she's read about her in her diaries. ... It's great for our project."

Many locals, including students, also are helping fill parts. Ms. Martin said the film, being funded by several grants, has a premiere date set for March 30. More information on the film can be found at www.edgewoodfilm.com.

Reach Preston Sparks at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com.