A number of the most famous are located on the
Ashley River Scenic Byway (Route 61) headed north-west out of Charleston.
First comes gloriously-ghostly Drayton Hall,
a magnificent 1738 mansion, more reminiscent of the traumatic Civil War era for
being left totally unfurnished. Reputedly, it was saved from the invading Federal
Army’s torches by the quick thinking of its mistress, who had notices posted
on the edge of the grounds saying that anyone who entered the premises was in
danger of contracting the plague. Today’s visitors, on the other hand, would
want to rush in to tour the impressive structure and view its undisturbed rural
landscape. Nearby, early 18th-century Middleton Place was not so lucky during the war.
But, when it was torched by the Yankees, its prominent rice plantation family,
which had included a signatory to the Declaration of Independence and a governor
of South Carolina, was able to move into the plantation’s elegant, surviving
brick ‘gentlemen’s guest wing’. It’s now a museum filled
with family furniture, paintings, books and documents. The 65-acre plantation is a magnet for those who wish to view America’s
first formal landscaped gardens, planted during the decade following 1740, by
more than 100 men. At its heart are two unusual, butterfly-shaped lakes and
the winding Ashley River. Around them are expanses of open lawn, woodlands,
ponds cruised by black swans, and more than 5000 shrubs and flowers –
magnolias, azaleas and camellias among them.
