One of the oldest plantations in the South, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The plantation itself dates to 1676, one hundred years before the US Revolutionary War.

Currently there are still 500 acres for the plantation. The original gardens were photographed by Mathew Brady, who would later become famous for his photographs of the American Civil War. John James Audubon (the iconic Great Egret painting), for whom Magnolia’s Audubon Swamp Garden is named studied here.

The plantation house was burned during the Civil War by Union troops, as were most of the plantations along the Ashley river. The Ashley river plantations were a primary contributor to Charleston being the wealthiest US city prior to the Civil War.

Obviously this is not the ‘Gone With The Wind’ style building people expect from large southern plantations.

The majority of buildings were burned and either restored or rebuilt.

Truth is, even the remaining buildings are not what Hollywood presented to us. I know of only one, and in a twist of life, the back of the plantation was rebuilt to be the front, after the war, and does look like we expect. It was all done to impress the neighbors.