Boone Hall Plantation

Plantations were very important to the history of the American South, especially prior to the Civil War. Soil that was fertile for crop growth, rainfall that was abundant, and a climate that was hot and humid during the summer, while mild in winter, all contributed to making plantations successful. One of America’s oldest working plantations is right here in the Mount Pleasant part of metropolitan Charleston; the Boone Hall Plantation. The first recorded reference to the property was a circa 1681, 470 acre land grant to Theophilus Patey, who gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, John Boone. This property would become known as Boone Hall Plantation. Boone had arrived in Charleston in 1672 as one of the area’s first settlers. Ownership of the property continued with the Boone family until 1811 when it was sold to Henry and John Horlbeck. The brothers created a brick factory on the grounds which provided much of the construction materials for many of Charleston’s buildings. By 1850, the factory was producing around four million bricks per years, utilizing 85 slaves. The Horlbeck family was also responsible for adding the famous “Avenue of Oaks” that lead up to the main house, in 1843. One of their more important additions to the Plantation was the planting of over 700 acres of Pecan trees. By the turn of the century, the Plantation was the leading producer of pecans in the country. Unfortunately, a major hurricane in 1911 wiped out a majority of the pecan trees. Canadian Thomas Stone purchased the property in 1935, demolishing the existing two-story house and building the current Colonial Revival Plantation House. Following several successive ownership changes, the Plantation was open to the public in 1956. From downtown Charleston, Boone Hall can be accessed by bus #40 along route 17 in Mount Pleasant.

As Charleston’s oldest working plantation, Boone Hall is a top tourist attraction.

Created in 1843 by the Horlbeck brothers, the Avenue of Oaks is one of the more impressive features of the plantation.

Often known as a floating staircase, this one really makes the front hall.

Just off the main hall, this sunken music room served as the main entertainment center for the mansion.

This conservatory was for a different type of relaxation.

Nine of the original slave cabins make up “Slave Street” (beside the main house)...

... each of which depicts different aspects of the lives of the plantation slaves. During the reconstruction period, these slave quarters became sharecropper’s cabins.

When Major John Boone died in 1711, he was buried along the Avenue of Oaks. But this maker is not his burial site...

...his actual tomb is about fifty feet beyond the marker and behind a bush.

There is just so much to see here that we could not possibly cover it all in this post. We had a great time.