Florence, SC In The Rain and The Henry Timrod House

The poet Henry Timrod and his one room school house

Henry Timrod was born on 8th December 1829 in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, William Henry Timrod, was a staunch patriot and also contributed to a literary magazine. It is no surprise, therefore, that Henry also grew up to have these characteristics.

Despite his father's early death, Timrod was still able to attend Charleston's finest school and later attended the University of Georgia. On graduating, he returned to Charleston and at first practiced law, before later becoming a private teacher. This suited him well as it also gave him time to pursue his literary ambitions.

During the Civil War, Timrod not only enlisted in a volunteer regiment, but also made the conflict the focus of his poetic works. His patriot lyrics are said to have inspired many a soldier and civilian and helped him acquire a reputation as “the laureate of the Confederacy”. One of his finest pieces to come out of this time was Ode to the Confederate Dead at Magnolia Cemetery.

Plagued by recurring illness throughout his adult life, Timrod was soon left unfit for service on the front line and instead became a war correspondent. By 1864 he had become the editor of the Columbia South Carolinian.

Despite his ill health, he married and had a son, who died shortly after the end of the war. When Timrod himself died of tuberculosis, virtually in poverty, on 7th October 1867, he was buried next to his son in the graveyard of Trinity Church in Columbia.

Only one volume of his works had been published during his lifetime (in 1860), but further collections were edited posthumously. Amongst his most memorable poems are The Cotton Boll, Carolina, and Ethnogenesis.

You can find his poems to download here:
http://www.poemhunter.com/henry-timrod/biography/

The historic sign in front of his little house

Monument in the yard and the Timrod Park in Florence

The little red caboose of the Atlantic Coast Line. Just in that moment the rain set in and I had a hard time to get around in "down town" of Florence for more photos.

This is the only one picture I could capture from the real down town area after that it was raining hard - and we left back to Charleston.

Of course, outside of Florence there was no rain anymore and I photographed this pretty water scene at sunset time.

If you like to know more about Florence, SC read here please:
http://www.sciway.net/city/florence.html

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.