Visit Middleton Place
West Ashley, South Carolina
By John Q. Wilson
Charleston, South Carolina is one of America’s favorite
vacation destinations; and for good reason. It offers pristine
oceanfront beaches and an historical district that would take
several days to cover on foot. The famous Market where you can
watch local women as they make “sweetgrass” baskets the same
way they have for hundreds of years. For the nautical lovers,
there is Patriot’s Point where you can tour the USS Yorktown
aircraft carrier. Or, you can visit the Confederate submarine
the Hunley; the first underwater vessel to ever sink another
ship. Or take a tour boat out to Fort Sumter where the first
shots were fired in the American Civil War.
But the crown jewel of Charleston is located west of the Ashley
River in the appropriately named suburb of West Ashley. About 10
miles from downtown Charleston, out Ashley River Road, lays the
Middleton Place Plantation.
One of the oldest homesteads in America, the original property
was deeded to Jacob Wayte over a hundred years before the
American Revolution. The next owners were the Middleton family
and this is where the Plantation drew its name. The Middleton’s
were one of the richest and most influential families in the
antebellum south. Henry Middleton (1717 – 1784) was President
of the First Continental Congress. Arthur Middleton (1742
-1787) signed the Declaration of Independence. Arthur’s son
Henry Middleton (1770-1846) was Governor of South Carolina and
an Ambassador to Russia. Williams Middleton (1809 – 1883) was a
signer of the Ordinance of Secession that launched the American
Civil War.
The original plantation house was built in 1755 with the main
house and north wing ransacked and burned by Sherman’s Army in
February 1865. The southern wing of the house, which suffered
less damage, was restored in 1870.
In the great Charleston earthquake of 1886, Middleton Place was
dealt yet another destructive blow. The beautiful garden
terraces that had taken hundreds of slaves decades to build
were destroyed in a matter of minutes. After the earthquake the
stately mansion and beautiful gardens fell into disrepair.
In 1916, J.J. Pringle Smith inherited Middleton Place and soon
began a massive restoration of the beautiful gardens. If you’ve
ever seen the Mel Gibson movie, “The Patriot” you have seen the
magnificence of the restoration. In 1991 the International
Committee on Monuments and Sites named Middleton Place one of
only six U.S. gardens of international importance.
In 1974, J.J. Pringle Smith's heirs established the non-profit
Middleton Place Foundation, which now owns the Middleton Place
National Historic Landmark.
Today, Middleton Place is a thriving restoration of eighteenth
and nineteenth century plantation life. If you plan to visit
Charleston, make the short day trip out to West Ashley and
Middleton Place. Bring your walking shoes. There are amazing
gardens spread across 65 acres. For those not inclined or
unable to walk the grounds, a 45 minute tour in a horse drawn
carriage conducted by a knowledgeable guide can be purchased at
visitor’s center.
In addition to the gardens, there is a house tour available and
a plantation stable yard with displays of the tools and methods
used in the daily life in the Old South. These stables are
staffed by local volunteers who are willing to share insight
into jobs and the daily lives of the slaves who used to live
there.
Be sure to include Middleton Place in West Ashley in your
Charleston vacation plans. It is a day you will not soon
forget.
Middleton Place
4300 Ashley River Road
West Ashley, SC 29414
(843) 556-6020
(800) 782-3608
About The Author:
Written by John Q. Wilson, owner of
YourWestAshleyGuide.com and famous for the annual
“Best of West Ashley” awards.
