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Drayton Hall
Drayton Hall is situated in the
what is known as the "lowcountry" of South Carolina, some 15 miles
northwest of Charleston, directly across the Ashley River from North
Charleston, South Carolina and is considered one of the finest
examples of Palladian architecture in North America, constructed
between 1738 and 1742. It would be constructed for John Drayton,
using both free and slave labor, and the seven bay double pile
plantation house sits on a marvelous 630 acre tract that had been
part of the plantation that produced rice and indigo back in its
heyday. This magnificent mansion is the last surviving plantation on
the Ashley River that survived both the Revolutionary War and the
Civil War. There were seven generations of Draytons that lived here,
preserving the house in its very pristine condition, although there
were some outbuildings, on the main house's flanks that were
destroyed; by an earthquake that took down the laundry house in
1886, and the kitchen that had been destroyed by a hurricane in
1893. On its west face, there is a marvelous double projecting,
recessed, portico that faces away from the river and towards the
land side entry that is located along Ashley River Road. The
projecting portico is something of a copy of the same feature at the
Villa Cornaro, near Venice, Italy, and designed by Renaissance
architect, Andrea Palladio in 1551. The large floor plan of the
gorgeous house is also Palladian, with a big center stair hall that
contains a symmetrically divided staircase backed by a big saloon,
and flanked by square and rectangular rooms. The pedimented
chimneypieces that are set inside the house have been done in the
tectonic manner that was popularized by William Kent, along with
outstanding plasterworks in many of the rooms sitting on the main
floor, that itself is on top of a raised basement. The site would
become a National Historic Landmark in 1960, and the state
department of archives and history claims the estate is "without
question one of the finest of all surviving plantation houses in
America". The estate was opened to the public in 1977 and highlights
both sides of the plantation's inhabitants and economy, both black
and white, with the first guide being published in 2005. The house
would be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
But this isn't just a story about a house that survived almost three
hundred years of history and tragic events, it is a story about a
family that lived there for seven generations that spanned those
three centuries, along with almost as many generations of slaves
that would be brought here in the early 18th century and lived here
along with the white families for just as long. Their stories are
all here, preserved by the families that lived this incredible
events and managed to survive as well as the house and estate.
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