We visit Drayton Hall, a plantation home ... (SC)

A chilly start, warming to a beautiful day.

Marcia and I drove to Drayton Hall, described as “the oldest preserved plantation house in America that is open to the public”.

Drayton Hall construction began in 1738 as the center of a successful rice plantation. During the Revolutionary War it was at times occupied by British troops and colonial troops. During the chaos of the Civil War it was severely damaged and vandalized, and overgrown with vegetation, but one of the few that wasn’t burned by advancing Union forces. The Draytons fell on hard times with the collapse of the rice economy but recovered by leasing the land for phosphate mining. Gradually they rebuilt. Later generations of Draytons used the house only on holidays and were not inclined to invest much in modernizing, so there is no indoor plumbing (at least that we could see) or a kitchen – these necessities were in separate structures.

In the 1970s conservators decide to preserve the building “as is” rather than picking an era and rebuilding to match those times. The rooms have an abandoned look – no furniture or wall hangings, and a lot of missing paint. Today with the front and rear doors open it felt like a wind tunnel.

The conservators are fortunate in that artists and early generations of the Draytons made detailed sketches of the buildings and property. Also, one slave family remained on the property for seven generations acting as caretakers, and contributed their knowledge.

As part of our tour ($13 senior), a very sharp woman described the role of blacks and black life in the Drayton Hall plantation culture. This was followed by an excellent house tour by a speed-talker named Bob, who has been involved in the Drayton Hall conservation from when it became a National Trust site, over 30 years ago. In casual comments that were minor elements of his talk, he spoke of many years ago buying a 17^th century home in Charleston, and at another time providing a special tour of Drayton Hall at the personal request of Jacquelyn Kennedy Onassis. A most unusual guide.