Drayton Hall Plantation - Impressions #2

Drayton Hall Plantation House back view

Look from the Ashley River back to the house

Palmetto tree at the shores of the Ashley River

Many small benches are inviting you to sit down, looking out to the river, to relax and to enjoy

Big white Heron is fishing in the pond
(click on the picture to see the bird better)

Spanish Moss hanging from the old oaks

One of the many big Oak trees, some are even more than 250 years old

A group of young birches are spending shadows on a hot summer afternoon

History information for tourists and visitors of Drayton Hall

Today's efforts are encompassed within the Heritage Landscape Project funded by a generous endowment created by Gail and Parker Gilbert of New York and Charleston. The goal of this project is not to restore or recreate the landscape as it appeared at one point in time, but rather, to establish a balance between the 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century landscapes.

The result of such a philosophy is a layered landscape. Visitors today see a Victorian garden mound and reflecting pond, live oaks that are over 250 years old, a camellia planted by Richmond Bowens in the 1920s, and the ha-ha, a landscape feature created as a barrier to keep sheep and other livestock out of the formal gardens in the 18th and early 19th century. They have the opportunity to understand how the grounds have changed over the course of time.


Read more about here

A visit to Drayton Hall Plantation

View of the Plantation House at Drayton Hall

Drayton Hall, in the Carolina "Low Country" near Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the most handsome examples of Palladian architecture in North America. The house was built for John Drayton, begun in 1738 and completed in 1742, using both free and slave labor. The seven-bay double pile plantation house stands in a 630-acre site that is part of the plantation based on indigo and rice.

Drayton Hall is the only plantation house on the Ashley River to survive the American Revolution and Civil War intact. Seven generations of Drayton heirs preserved the house in all but original condition, though the flanking outbuildings have not survived: an earthquake destroyed the laundry house in 1886 and a hurricane destroyed the kitchen in 1893 [1].

The house has a deep recessed double portico on the west "front" (actually the rear of the dwelling, though this elevation faces the approach from Ashley River Road), shading the house from afternoon sun and offering open-air summer living space. The floor plan of Drayton is Palladian, with a central entrance stair hall, containing a symmetrical divided staircase, backed by a large saloon, flanked by square and rectangular chambers [2]. Pedimented chimneypieces in the house are in the tectonic manner popularized by William Kent. There is fine plasterwork in several of the rooms of the main floor, which is raised above a half-basement.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.^[1][3]

The South Carolina Department of Archives and History claims that Drayton Hall is "without question one of the finest of all surviving plantation houses in America".^[4]

Drayton Hall is managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which opened the house to the public in 1977 and presents both sides of the historic plantation economy exemplified by Drayton, black and white. A first guide to the house, Drayton Hall was published in 2005.

It is located on State Route 61 and is included in the Ashley River Historic District.

It was often considered one of the best gardens in the United States.

My Wordless Sunday #21 - in Charleston, SC

Charles Towne Landing - A State Historic Site

The spot where the first settlers arrived with their ship and first stepped on land

A full size replica of a sailing ship

On many spots in the park you can see the archaeologists at work

The entrance gate to the Legare-Waring House

The authentic experimental crop garden

An elegant live oak alle’ and the Legare-Waring House

The sign explains briefly the history behind the Legare-Waring House

Front view of the entrance of the Legare-Waring House

Pretty marsh scene at the landing place

It was just a beautiful spring day



Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site

Cannons boom. Muskets bark. Interpretive rangers in 17th century dress tend heirloom crops. They’re all part of the “new” Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site.

Here a group of English settlers landed in 1670 and established what would become the birthplace of the Carolinas colony, the plantation system of the American South, and one of the continent’s first major port cities. And here the story is still told.

Opened in 1970 as Charles Towne Landing State Park, the peaceful park on a marshy point off the Ashley River was rebuilt in 2006 with a sharpened focus on the site’s remarkable past. Begin with the 12-room, interactive museum in the Visitors Center that includes a “digital dig”. Then walk the self-guided history trail, using the MP3 players that add an audio tour to the experience.

Admire the Adventure, a full-size replica sailing ship built onsite, and the authentic experimental crop garden.

Talk to archaeologists at work. And leave time for the Animal Forest natural habitat zoo and 80 acres of gardens that includes an elegant live oak alle’ and the Legare-Waring House, one of Charleston’s favorite sites for weddings and other special gatherings.

Read more about here

The Ashley River, SC

The Ashley River is a river in South Carolina, rising from the Wassamassaw and Great Cypress Swamps in Western Berkeley County. It consolidates its main channel about 5 miles west of Summerville, widening into a brackish, tidal estuary just south of Fort Dorchester. The much wider Ashley joins the Cooper River in Charleston to form the Charleston Harbor before discharging into the Atlantic Ocean.

The river was named for Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and chief Lord Proprietor of the Carolina Colony. Charleston was founded on the western bank of the Ashley in 1670 (at Charles Towne Landing), before moving across to its current peninsular location ten years later.

The Cooper River

The Cooper River is a river in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Several cities are located along the river, primarily Charleston. Short and wide, the Wando River joins the Cooper, then it flows south and unites with the Ashley River in the estuary forming Charleston Harbor. The Cooper River was connected to the Santee River by a canal built in the late 18th century. Today Lake Moultrie and two canals connect the Cooper River to Lake Marion.

The Cooper River was formerly spanned by both the Silas N. Pearman Bridge, and the John P. Grace Memorial Bridge. These bridges have since been demolished and replaced by the recently completed Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge. The new bridge is higher than the old ones, to accommodate larger modern ships coming into the Port of Charleston.

In service since August 8, 1929, the Grace Memorial Bridge was the oldest of the three. Named for the commissioner who inspired the state's highway system and parallel to the Grace Memorial Bridge, the Pearman Bridge opened on April 29, 1966. Previous to the completion of The Arthur Ravenel Bridge the Grace Memorial Bridge was referred to as the 'Old Cooper River Bridge' while the Pearman Bridge was called the 'New Cooper River Bridge.' The Arthur Ravenel Bridge (or New Cooper River Bridge)opened to traffic on July 16, 2005. Demolition of the Grace and Pearman bridges began shortly afterwards and was completed in 2007.

A very popular 10k run over the river occurs each spring, the Cooper River Bridge Run and Walk.

Daniel Island and Drum Island (uninhabited) are located in the river. Cargo terminals, a paper mill, and the former Charleston Navy Base line its shore. Rice was heavily cultivated on plantations surrounding the Cooper River from colonial times to the civil war. The Patriot's Point naval & maritime museum sits at the mouth of the river. Berthed at Patriot's Point are four museum ships, most notably the USS Yorktown, a World War II aircraft carrier.

“Goose Creek” A tributary of the Cooper River was the site of a U.S. Navy submarine base through the late 90’s and functioned as a nuclear weapons handling facility servicing FBM (Fleet Ballistic Submarines) until the advent of the larger Trident Class which required a deeper draft.

Stay tuned, tomorrow I will bring some pictures from Patriots Point and the old WWII aircraft carrier!

Old History - Old Fort Dochester, SC

Dorchester County’s history dates back to 1696, when Dorchester was settled by two distinct groups that set sail from England. The Puritans came seeking religious freedom and the Anglicans came with the crown’s blessing to seek land and wealth. The Puritans arrived in 1696 from Dorchester, Massachusetts, and were responsible for the name of the town, the fort and eventually the county.

The Anglicans had been around for some 20 years when the Puritans arrived but St. George’s, Dorchester was not built until 1719. Together, the Anglicans and the Puritans built Dorchester into the third largest town in the state and an important shipping center for rice planters sending their goods down the Ashley River to Charleston. The tabby fort built of mud, oyster shells and limestone, now known as Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site, was constructed prior to the Revolutionary War and was used to defend the area. Such famous generals as Moultrie, Francis Marion and Wade Hampton held off the British from the fort.

The birth of Summerville at war’s end spelled the demise of Dorchester. All that remains is the fort, St. George’s bell tower and foundations of some houses, which are being carefully excavated.
Summerville started as Pineland Village around 1785 when plantation owners came here to escape the swamp fevers and insects. Before Dorchester County was formed in 1897, Summerville was situated in Charleston, Berkeley and Colleton Counties.

Dorchester County was very much a part of America’s first railroad. In 1830, the rails started at Charleston and ran through Summerville to Hamburg, opening the upper part of the county above Cypress Swamp.

Ridgeville got its name about that time and began to grow. St. George was originally named for the first settler, James George, who leased the land to the railroad and it became an important station on the line. Reevesville was founded in or near Indian Trail, supposedly before 1793, and several hundred members of the Edisto Indian tribe live in Indiantown today. They were officially recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior in the 1970s. The rural town of Givhans is home to a state park on the banks of the Edisto River.

With the Civil War came the end of the plantation system and thus the end of the economy and the only lifename known to most of Dorchester’s inhabitants. Not until after Reconstruction was there a beginning of recovery.

In 1899, a world congress of medical specialists in the field of respiratory disease gathered in Paris. The group, known as “the Tuberculosis Congress,” named Summerville one of the two best areas in the world for the cure of lung and throat disorders. The town was so named because of its situation on a dry, sandy ridge, amidst pine trees that charge the air with derivatives of turpentine. Their findings were widely publicized and a golden era began for the lower part of Dorchester County; and one inn after another sprang up as the town quickly became a favorite winter resort for Northern visitors who came to enjoy the mild climate and hunting season. The most famous, the Pine Forest Inn, sometimes served as the Winter White House for Presidents William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.