Walking Back in Time: Drayton Hall and Middleton Place

Walking Back in Time: Drayton Hall and Middleton Place

The ride to Savannah took a scant three hours, and in the sojourn between the trolley tour and dinner, we’ve escaped the heat and are relaxing in our room. Time to blog.

I guess I should catch up where I left off. 

Saturday was Plantation Day. There were two plantations in included in our Charleston Heritage pass -  Drayton Hall and Middleton Place, both on the Ashley River, a 25 minute drive from the downtown historic area. 

Drayton Hall

Drayton Hall is the oldest surviving and intact plantation home on the Ashley River, and has not been changed since its last full time inhabitants left in the late 1800’s. It has no electricity, no plumbing, and no running water. It stands, remarkably and with minimal modification, as John Drayton built it in 1738. This stately Georgian manor house has survived the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and national disaster. Like many of the other homes we’ve been in during this trip, it too is managed by an agency well adept at maintaining such treasures, the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

From the moment you being down the path to the home, canopied by live oaks , you can feel yourself slowly drift back to a time of grace and gentility, when a wealthy few lived lives beyond imagination. Seven generations of Draytons have owned Drayton Hall, and seven generations of Bowens, African-Americans, lived and worked there. The home is a magnificent example of a colonial architecture, beautifully and uniquely unrestored. Visitors can awe the detail of the plaster ceiling art, the ornate hand-carved wood moldings and cornice work, cypress paneled walls, the fireplaces and over-mantles and more. I know we did.

From the second floor piazzas, you can see the Ashley River and imagine a time of grand balls, with music wafting throughout the rooms, doors and windows thrown opened to a beautiful backdrop of landscaped English gardens and cool river breezes.  Even the basement is remarkable for its time.

If you get to Charleston, I highly recommend a trip to Drayton Hall.

Middleton Place

A few miles down the road is Middleton Place, also a historic landmark and home to some of the most beautiful and oldest landscaped gardens in America. Like Drayton Hall, the property has remained with the Middleton family for generations.

The house and lands that became known as Middleton Place were part of Mary Williams dowry when she married Henry Middleton in 1741. Henry, a wealthy plantation owner in his own right, decided he and his bride would live here, and as part of his grand design, added the English gardens and two unattached flanker buildings. After Mary Williams Middleton died in 1761, Henry moved to The Oaks, his birthplace. Middleton Place to Arthur Middleton in 1763 when he returned from school in Europe.

Williams Middleton, the great-great grandson of Henry and Mary, inherited Middleton Place in 1846. A rice planter, he was avid about South Carolina’s secession from the Union. Unlike Drayton Hall, Middleton Place was occupied, and ransacked.  Only the left flanker building survived enough to be rebuilt after the Civil War, which Williams did with the help of monies from his sister, Eliza.

The home, while not as grand as the original three-story brick main home, served the family well. The earthquake of 1886 leveled what remained of the main house and right flanker building, but the left flanker survived.

The grounds and gardens of Middleton Place were and remain its most precious commodity. It took nearly decade and almost 100 slaves to complete the gardens, a majestic example of geometry and design.  They fell into disrepair after the Civil War, until direct descendant J.J. Pringle Smith and his wife undertook the process to restore them to their original grandeur. 

You can walk the paths though the gardens and along the river and see the centuries old trees and flowers that continue to grow and thrive. If you close you eyes, you can almost hear the rustling of petticoats and taffeta. It is breathtaking.

Enjoy lunch at the restaurant on the grounds at Middleton Place, a three-course menu of Low Country favorites, including sweet tea, southern fried chicken and shrimp and grits (which I had and thoroughly enjoyed!).  Like Drayton Hall, Middleton Place is a must see. Plan to spend an entire day to fully experience both plantations.  It is a well spent, relaxing walk back in time.