Historic house with gardens located on the Ashley River is one of the oldest plantations in the South
General Information
Last admission: 4:00pm
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day
Children (5-13): $16
Children under 5: Free
Additional specialty tours may require separate fees
How to Get There
From North Charleston (8 mi): Take Ashley Phosphate Road or I-26 toward Ashley River Road (SC-61), continue northwest along the Ashley River Scenic Byway, and follow signs to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens at 3550 Ashley River Road.
Overview
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, on the Ashley River west of Charleston, is one of the oldest plantations in the South and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Thomas and Ann Drayton built a house and small formal garden here in 1676, and the estate remains in the Drayton family after 15 generations. It began as a rice plantation with extensive dikes and dams. The house and gardens are open daily.
What to See
- House museum: a restored plantation house rebuilt after the Civil War
- From Slavery to Freedom tour: five cabins, four built in slavery times, restored to different periods to show the lives of enslaved and free Black workers
- Azaleas and camellias: nearly 900 varieties of camellia, with the first plantings dating to the 1820s
- Flowerdale: formal beds within boxwood hedges, established in 1680
- Maze: a replica of England's Hampton Court maze with nearly 14 miles of pathways
- Other gardens: the Barbados Tropical Garden, Biblical Garden, Swamp Garden, and Long Bridge from the 1840s
- Nature Center and Zoo, and the Cattail Wildlife Refuge with a tower for observation
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Magnolia Plantation and Gardens (Charleston, South Carolina))", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
