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Middleton Place- Charleston, SC
Just a few miles from Drayton Hall’s dramatic Palladian architecture and Magnolia Plantation’s impressive bridges sits Middleton Place, home of the oldest landscaped gardens in the United States. Based on classic design principles and precise geometric measurements, it’s a perfectly proportioned garden, with symmetry, vistas, and focal points. And yet, it is the house and outbuildings that excite me at this property. Here, the ghosts of the past speak loudest through the built structures, and they all have interesting stories to tell.
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Magnolia Plantation & Gardens-Charleston, SC
A world away from downtown Charleston, Magnolia Plantation sits quietly on the banks of the Ashley River. A sprawling estate owned by the same family for three centuries, the primordial property appears frozen in time. Wild and untamed, the gardens here are like few others you will encounter in the United States.
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Falls Park on the Reedy- Greenville, SC
I do love a good urban park. A green space amidst the city chaos is always a welcome respite. Greenville has an absolute gem in Falls Park on the Reedy. A scenic river cutting right through town, the park combines natural beauty with a thoroughly modern suspension bridge. It also contains relics from Greenville’s mill based past, making it the perfect place to explore. Life in Greenville has always been centered on the Reedy River. Although the area was long a hunting ground for the Cherokee, once European colonist arrived, the town grew around the river. By the late 1800s several cotton mills were operating in town; by 1915 Greenville…
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The Poinsett Hotel- Greenville, SC
Much like downtown Greenville, the Poinsett Hotel has made a dramatic comeback. Long abandoned and left to deteriorate following the rise of interstate motels, the Poinsett has experienced a wonderful renaissance in recent years. The once grand hotel has been resurrected, and thankfully retains much of its original charm. Dating back to 1925, the $1.5 million Poinsett replaced an earlier 1820 resort hotel, The Mansion House, located on the same Main Street site. Although once grand, the old hotel had fallen into disrepair, and was to be replaced with a luxurious modern high-rise masterpiece. New York architect William Lee Stoddart, who had just built Charleston’s Francis Marion Hotel, was employed…
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Drayton Hall- Charleston, SC
There is something so pleasing about the symmetry of a Palladian building. Drayton Hall is a wonderful example of this style of architecture, as well as an 18th century Southern Plantation. Surviving both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars largely intact, it is as historical as it is beautiful.
