A visit to the SC Lowcountry would not be complete without a trip to the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens founded back in 1676 by the Drayton family.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens

It is the oldest public tourist site in the Lowcountry, and the oldest public gardens in America, opening its doors to visitors in 1870 to view the thousands of beautiful flowers and plants in its famous gardens.

The house itself is not the original one, but the third. The current main House tells a story of its own. The core of the building was built before the Revolutionary War not on its current site, but at a place near Summerville, South Carolina and floated down the Ashley River to Magnolia after the Civil War. The house gives a glimpse of plantation life in the 19th century and beyond. There are ten rooms open to the public, and are furnished with early-American antiques, porcelain and quilts.

Whilst visiting this part of the SC Lowcountry, you can see the wet lands of the flooded rice fields that form part of the Magnolia plantation as well as a street of slave cabins, occupied well into the 20th century. These slave cabins each reflect a different period of time and have been carefully preserved and restored to document the full arc of African-American life at the Magnolia Plantation.

The SC Lowcountry has some fascinating and living history and offers locals and visitors alike an insight into historic charleston and its environs.