South Carolina - Manigault House

Manigault House  “… built in 1803, reflects the urban lifestyle of a wealthy, rice-planting family and the enslaved African Americans who lived there…. A striking spiral staircase accents the impressive central hall, and many of the rooms are restored to their original color schemes…”    source

beautiful staircase & chandelier

 More here

South Carolina - McLeod Plantation

McLeod Plantation - … situated at Wappoo Creek, which flows into the Ashley River, and the site was first recorded on maps from 1678 when it was indicated by the name "Morris." The plantation house standing on the land today was constructed in about 1858 in the Georgian style. Also on the property are six remaining clapboard slave cabins, a detached kitchen, a dairy building, a pre-Civil War gin house for the long-staple cotton grown on the Sea Islands, a barn, and a carriage house. … The home was occupied by the McLeod family until 1990. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLeod_Plantation

When the house was built, this was the front. It faced Wappoo Creek. When tourists started coming to the plantation, they expected a grander facade with white columns. So the back of the house became the front - complete with white columns. 

This is what you see when arriving by land. 

slave cabins were later used by people who had been freed 

More about the plantation here

Ella Jefferson was making sweetgrass baskets at the plantation

Check out the video at the bottom of this page

Middleton Place - Landscape

Henry Middleton began creating gardens at Middleton Place in 1741. The principles of André Le Nôtre, the master of classical garden design who laid out the gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte and the Palace of Versailles were followed. Rational order, geometry and balance; vistas, focal points and surprises were all part of the garden design. Click here for beautiful pictures of the garden, including the terraces from the house to the river. 

The river is at my back & I'm looking towards the house. If you look closely you can see the terraces that lead up to the house. 

Andre Michaux, botanist friend of the Middletons, brought the first camellias to America for the Middleton gardens. 

- huge live oak tree. The guide told us Henry Lee, Robert E. Lee's father, camped by the oak and wrote about it in his diary. I can't find anything that substantiates that, but it's an interesting story. 

live oaks & Spanish moss

Live oaks are called "live" because they remain green throughout the winter

As this article explains, it's neither Spanish nor moss

butterfly ponds

camellias of many colors

holly tree

brick for the house and fences were made on the plantation

Middleton Place - Animals

A variety of animals inhabit Middleton Place

The farm has animals that would have been on the plantation several hundred years ago. The first water buffalo in the United States were purchased in Constantinople and shipped to Middleton Place. They plowed the rice fields. There are sheep, cows, chickens, horses, goats, and other animals. 

These Belgian draft horses pull tourists on carriage rides

The driver said they were purchased from Amish farmers

These people are walking from the house, down the terraces towards the river 

- and right towards an alligator on the bank of the pond

We called out and warned them about the alligator

egret

cormorant

This goose family was strutting around. The mallard duck was bringing up the rear. He must have been adopted into the family. 

South Carollina - Middleton Place

John Williams, an early South Carolina planter, probably began building Middleton Place in the late 1730s. His son-in-law Henry Middleton (1717–1784), who later served as President of the First Continental Congress, completed the house's main section and its north and south flankers, and began work on the elaborate gardens. Middleton's son, Arthur Middleton (1742–1787), a signer of Declaration of Independence, was born at Middleton Place, and lived at the plantation in the last years of his life. Arthur Middleton's son and grandson, Henry Middleton (1770–1846) and Williams Middleton (1809–1883), oversaw Middleton Place's transition from a country residence to a more active rice plantation. In 1865, toward the end of the U.S. Civil War, Union soldiers burned most of the house, leaving only the south wing and gutted walls of the north wing and main house. An earthquake in 1886 toppled the walls of the main house and north wing. (Wikipedia)

Like most large homes of the era, Middle Place was built facing a river, the Ashley River in this instance. Top - view from the original front stairs, looking towards the river. 

This is the land entrance to the house. 

The original main house stood to the left of the remaining structure. 

front stairs of the main house

Union soldiers burned the house in the Civil War. 

An earthquake finished off what little was remaining of the house. 

Of the three buildings that made up the residential complex, this is the only one that survived the various devastations. It became the family's residence. 

"The house contains Middleton family furniture, paintings, books, artifacts, and documents dating from the 1740s through the Civil War." (Middleton Place website)

Happy Valentine's Day

The Cow and Coyote & Valentine's Day