Middleton Place

We visited Middleton place while we were in Charleston.  Although it is fairly close to the downtown (maybe like a 20 min drive) this was where many of the plantations were  along the Ashley River and then the families would have a "city home" in Charleston as well.

When we pulled up Anna loved the parking arrangements as the trees were cleared or planted to allow for cars to pull in between each tree and nature designated parking.

The property of Middleton Place is huge today but even so, it is greatly reduced from when it was a Rice plantation.  That being said, many of the gardens and walkways are preserved from what they would have looked like during the height of it's day as a working plantation.  The grounds varied from Cypress swamps on one side with alligators and frogs and I'm sure snakes as well...

to formal gardens with clipped boxwoods, sculptures, and sprawling lawns just steps away.

The photo below looks out towards the Ashley River but the water you see in the foreground and beyond are flooded Rice fields where the slaves would actually work to harvest the crop. The Plantation actually had water buffalo from Africa to help work the crop and during the Civil War the Northerners took 2 of the Buffalo and brought them home to the Bronx Zoo and they were known as Sherman's Buffalo.  The Middleton family (we wondered if they were related to Kate Middleton down the line somewhere) owned more than 6500 slaves to work the several plantations they owned besides this one.  

To give you perspective on the shear size of the trees, the below photo is a closeup of the tree, in the above photo, with me (and i'm not petite) standing next to the trunk.

The formal gardens also included statuary including this piece which is the only piece to have survived the Civil War.

The size of trees continued to shock us as the only trees that come close to the size of these Live Oaks back home in Utah are Sycamore.  I took this photo below and it may appear normal in size but if you planted that tree in the center of our back yard it would cover the entire yard in the shade of it's branches.  (this is the same tree seen in the photo above with the formal garden and yellow flowers)

As you approached the home on the estate the gardens began to show the signs of the men who cultivated the land.  Brick walls and gates now corralled the yards and Anna and I dreamed of incorporating many of these details into our own little estate back home. 

We especially loved the gates with their counter balance weighted cannonball to keep them closed and their latches to keep them locked.

The house itself was burned during the Civil War but one of the guest houses that sat on the side of the main house and that was the same style as the main house still stands.  Let's be honest it is a large house and for it to be a guest house is amazing in itself.  I have to say it isn't what I envisioned when I thought 'Plantation House' with the white columns and double front porch but it was impressive all the same.  We loved the working shutters on the house and how everywhere on the estate the brick matched in age and color.

Surrounding the house were large Magnolia trees with still a few blossoms left on them and we had to take a photo as it is the namesake of our youngest girl Magnolia Mae.

Beyond the house lay the working part of the plantation where the stables, the blacksmith shops and weaving buildings are located.  This is also where the slave quarters would have been and on a sloping hill where the slave cemetery is (although no grave markers exist today).

The below house is not a slave house but rather was built right after the Civil War by 'freemen' who had worked on the Middleton Plantation as slaves and now came back to the only home they knew as 'freemen' to become sharecroppers.  I'm sure life wasn't much better for them.

The yard around the house was sand and they would rake the sand everyday with the little rake on the porch and still rake all the paths and walkways around the plantation every day.  We found out the reason for this would be so they could see any paths that snakes made so they could hunt them and kill them and if there were leaves left it would be a good hiding spot for brown recluse spiders.  

The property had several ponds and gardens that we explored 

In every body of water you were sure to find turtles or alligators including those sunning themselves on the banks in the photo below.

We loved visiting Middleton and would recommend it to anyone who is visiting the area.