I do love an old big porch filled with rockers.

People sit around and ‘solve the problems of the world’, without ever leaving the chair.

This is a porch that came close to doing just that.

In 1777 the Marquis de La Fayette sat here after landing in the US colonies in the south rather than the northern ports where the British expected him. He went on to lead the Continental Army during the US revolution.

Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, was here often in 1779 after the siege of Savannah while being pursued by British forces. Marion and his militia hid in the swamps and marshes behind this plantation while fighting the first guerrilla warfare campaign.

George Washington stayed here during his tour of the original US following his term as President. He had meetings with veterans of the southern campaign here.

The poet laureate  Archibald Rutledge was the last of his family to own Hampton Plantation. In 1971 the state of South Carolina purchased the land.

I’ve written about this before, it still amazes me after hundreds of years of history you too can just sit on the porch (usually by yourself).