A Week in the South Carolina Low Country
Leg 1 – Charleston, South Carolina
03/19/2023 – 03/25/2023
It’s time to fill in that empty hole on our states map between North Carolina and Georgia. Yes, it’s time to make a stop in South Carolina. But where? Did we want to visit the mountain region? Experience the Pecan Trail in Florence? Finally spend some time in Charleston? While I was searching the Visit South Carolina website, I saw a little something about this little town called Summerville. Summerville, the birthplace of sweet tea. I pulled it up on google maps and the little town is 40 minutes NW of Charleston. Okay, we are going to Charleston.
Home this week is the Charleston KOA located about 30 minutes outside of Charleston. It’s nice enough and centrally located to the places we want to visit. We had an uneventful trip up from Florida until we hit the SC state line. Again, with that I-95. Traffic is horrible. Why? WHY?? Put your tax dollars to work South Carolina and update your freeways, add another lane, fill the potholes do something!
Summerville
Our first stop was to the Summerville Visitor Center. In that true southern charm, we were welcomed to the city and given all kinds of ideas and attractions to explore. Summerville takes pride in being called “The Birthplace of Sweet Tea”, the champagne of the south. Being from the south and growing up in the south and loving some good sweet tea, this history intrigued me.
The History of Sweet Tea
The story goes like this; in the late 1700s the tea plant made its way from France to Summerville. In 1888 a wealthy, scientific philanthropist, Dr. Shepard, purchased 600 acres of land in Summerville and established the Pinehurst Tea Plantation. In 1904, Dr. Shepard won “Best Tea” at the World Fair in St. Louis. Pinehurst continued to produce award winning teas until Dr. Shepard’s death in 1915 and the garden was closed and left unattended until 1963. At that time, Lipton paid to have the surviving plants moved to Wadmalaw Island. The Wadmalaw property changed hands several times and is currently owned by Bigelow Teas and renamed the Charleston Tea Plantation.
I could not find any documentation that Summerville is actually the birthplace of sweet tea and I kind of have my doubts that it is since tea has been sweetened with sugar since it was brought over from Europe. And it is said the North served tea over ice before the South, so who knows? What I do know, is Summerville did make the World’s largest jar of Sweet Tea.
Mason
Mason is the name of the mason jar that held 2,524 gallons of sweet tea and became the World Record holder for Largest Sweet Iced Tea on June 10, 2016. It took 210 pounds of local tea, 1700 pounds of Dixie Crystal sugar and a lot of help from the community. 😊 You can visit Mason in the alley next to the City Hall Building, however, he does not have any sweet tea to sample.
Historic Downtown Summerville
We walked around the little historic area, had some shrimp po-boys at the Shuckin’ Shack and I discovered a little quilt shop. The ladies in People, Places and Quilts were very friendly and made sure I was finding everything I needed. They had a lot of beautiful quilts on display, and I would have loved to have taken a class in their cute classroom. As we were leaving, a local artist was dropping off a chair and ottoman she reupholstered in patchwork and appliqué. Isn’t it cool? Quite the conversation piece.
Summerville was born in the late 1700s when Charlestonians and residents of other low country areas searched for a break from the summer heat of the coastal areas. From May to September families headed for the higher elevation in the forest. Summerville. I find it kind of funny as the elevation difference between Charleston and Summerville is only 51’. It must have been the shade from all the trees that provided relief from the heat because it certainly wasn’t the “higher” elevation.
Historic Homes Walking Tour
There is plenty to keep you busy in Summerville and this link will take you to the Visit Summerville website. https://www.visitsummerville.com/what-to-do
We chose to take a walking tour of the historic homes. The self-guided tour starts in Azalea Park and is an easy stroll past 20 historic homes. We downloaded the audio tour and began our walk. All the houses on the tour were built in the 1800s and they are all currently occupied.
My favorites along the tour were the Blake Washington house and the Brailsford Browning house. The Blake Washington house was built in 1862 and is a plantation style home. It underwent an extensive restoration in 1970. The Brailsford Browning house was built in 1830 and its yard was filled with 100-year-old oak trees. I’m sure those trees kept the house nice and cool all summer long.
We enjoyed the one hour walk and listening to the stories about the people who once lived here.
Colonial Dorchester
Six miles from camp is the Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site. I’ve got to stop and say, it is so nice having so many sights to see, so close to “home”. It gives us something to do in the afternoons when the workday is done. Okay, back to Colonial Dorchester. Colonial Dorchester was founded in 1697 by a group of Congregationalist from Massachusetts that came to settle in the Carolinas along the Ashley River. The town the created served as a center of trade for a hundred years then the town gradually declined after the Revolution and by 1788 was all but abandoned. All that is left today is the remains of the brick powder magazine, the fort built to protect it, the bell tower from the church and some gravesites.
St George Parrish
The church was built in 1717 and the bell tower was added around 1753. Burned by the British during the Revolution, the church was partially repaired but as the congregation moved away, it began to deteriorate. All that remains today is a portion of the bell tower. These bricks are almost 275 years old!
The Fort and Brick Magazine
The fort was constructed in 1757 when it was realized that South Carolina’s only gunpowder storage facility was in Charleston. Fearing an attack from the French, the legislature gave permission for another store house or “powder magazine” to be built. Dorchester was chosen due to its location on the Ashley River and its proximity to Charlston.
The SC State Park system does a very good job preserving and telling the stories of this historic site.
Charleston Tea Garden
The Charleston Tea Garden is located on Wadmalaw Island. Remember those prized tea plants of Dr. Shepard’s? This is where they now live. They have been transplanted and propagated and now they are the Charleston Tea Garden, North America’s only large-scale commercial tea production facility.
The road leading down to the warehouse and gift shop takes you right next to the fields of tea plant. We parked and walked out to one of the fields and saw the “Green Giant”. This piece of equipment cuts all the new tea leaves off the plants and brings them to the warehouse to be processed. They usually get 3-4 cuttings a year.
After we checked out the Green Giant and tea plants, we meandered over to the gift shop nestled amongst the moss draped oaks and blooming azaleas. Are you tired of hearing about all the moss dripping trees and blooming azaleas? They never get tiring to look at. Inside the gift shop is a factory tour that explains how the tea leaves are processed.
Factory Tour and Tasting
There are basically four types of tea and they all come from the same tea plant. They are white, green, oolong and black. The type of tea produced depends on how it is handled and processed. White tea goes through the least amount of processing or oxidizing and the black tea is oxidized the longest. I learned something today. LOL, I learn lots of stuff every day.
After the short tour we had the opportunity to sample their teas with several selections being served hot and cold. My favorite was iced mint tea. It was refreshing on this warm day. Don’t forget to stop and see Waddy on the front porch and share some iced tea.
There is no charge to visit the tea garden and it is a nice way to spend the afternoon.
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
Midway between Charleston and Summerville, along the Ashley are three plantations: Middleton Place, Drayton Hall and Magnolia Plantation & Gardens. Each offers a different experience. I chose Magnolia Plantation because I liked the house, the gardens, the family story and it looked like there was a lot to explore here and maybe even the opportunity to ride our bikes.
The Garden admission ticket includes entrance to the gardens and a guided tour of the slave quarters which was titled, “From Slavery to Freedom”. There were other tours you could purchase to add on to your garden admission. I chose to add the Magnolia House tour to our trip.
History of Magnolia Plantation
Magnolia Plantation dates back to the 1600s when Thomas Drayton and his wife Ann built their house and small formal gardens on the 1,872-acre farm. The Reverend John Grimke-Drayton received the farm from his grandfather in the 1840s and 15 generations later, it still remains under the control of the Drayton family.
Reverend Drayton reworked the existing gardens and designed and planted more elaborate gardens with the hope of luring his bride from Philadelphia. Seems she wasn’t overly excited to leave the city for “the middle of nowhere”. The farm’s major crop was rice, Carolina Gold Rice, which is still grown on the property. You can even buy it in the gift shop at $14/lb. They must think their rice is actually gold.
The original plantation house on the property was burned by Sherman’s army during the Civil War. After the war, Reverend Drayton was broke. He made the mistake of exchanging all his Union dollars in for Confederate dollars. He went from a very wealthy man to a very poor man overnight. Oops.
In 1870, to raise money, Reverend Drayton sold tickets to visit the gardens. For $1.50 visitors would arrive to the gardens by steamboat from Charleston. They were treated to a nice sack lunch and a tour of the beautiful gardens.
Today it is our turn to walk through the gardens and tour the house. The walk along the Ashley River was peaceful. We followed several meandering paths through the gardens, but sadly our visit was a little early in the season as nothing was blooming yet. Where are those azaleas?
Magnolia House
Magnolia House was built in the late 1800s, in two separate phases. After losing all his money when the Civil War ended, Reverend Drayton was only able to rebuild a 4-room home for his family. That part was to the left of the front door. After his death in 1891, Julia Drayton Haste inherited the plantation. Julia had “married well” and was able to add on to the 4-room home her father had built to make the home as it appears today. We were not allowed to take any pictures of the interior of the house, but it was very nice. The master bedroom had a beautiful view of the gardens and the Ashley beyond.
The Enslaved of Magnolia Plantation
The story of Magnolia Plantation and Gardens isn’t just about the beautiful house and gardens but about the people who worked the farm, gardens and rice fields; the enslaved men, women and children. Before going out to step inside the cabins, we heard some stories about what life was like back then. We all know these were not good times and life for the enslaved was very hard and the living conditions were awful. It makes me sad to think about it and what these people endured.
After the Emancipation, about half of the newly freed African American stayed at Magnolia as paid workers, gardeners, tour guides and domestic help. One of the cabins belonged to a gentleman named Johnny Leach, a descendant of one of the enslaved at Magnolia. He lived in the cabin from the late 1940’s until 1969 (his choice) Mr. Leach was Magnolia’s senior gardener and oldest employee.
It was a lovely afternoon strolling around the gardens and learning the history of this plantation.
The Citadel
When we arrived in town, we passed an exit sign on the freeway that said, “The Citadel”. I asked Bill, “Isn’t that the school that did not allow female students and there was a big legal battle?” Yes, it was. That was 1995 and Shannon Faulkner was the student. Shannon won her fight and was admitted to the Citadel and then quit a week later. Today women make up 1/3 of the cadets and in 2019 The Citadel graduated its first female regimental commander, the highest rank among cadets.
As I started planning our activities for the week, I thought it would be cool to visit the Citadel. I went to their website to get some visitor information and saw that they have parades on Fridays and as luck would have it, there would be a parade this week. The Corps Day Jeep Review. Cool! A Jeep parade!
Let’s Go to a Parade
Not knowing anything about The Citadel, Corps Day or military parades, we got up and headed to the school because I also read to get there about an early to secure a parking spot. Traffic was light and we ended up getting there around 9:15AM. There is a guard gate at the entrance, however, it did not look like you needed to stop, no one was coming out as cars in front of us were passing through. Bill stops anyway because we learned the hard way to always stop at the guard gate when we were visiting West Point a few years ago. (Bill didn’t know to stop and continued on and before we knew it the MP was after us. LOL) Anyway, the cadet comes out and says, “Your good, go on in”.
Where is Everyone?
We found a great parking spot and I was thinking, Wow! Where is everyone? I thought there would be more people by now. Well, we’ll just walk around and see the chapel until it is closer to 10:30. After we looked inside the chapel and read about The Citadel in the memorial in front of the bell tower it’s about 10:00 and still no activity. Then I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach, you know the one I’m talking about. Did I get the date right? The time? I pulled up the website, yep 3/24 at 10:30. So what’s going on?
We continue on around the parade grounds reading the placards and looking at the military equipment when I see a sign for “Visitor Center”. I walk in and no one is there. Weird! As we were getting ready to walk out, someone came out and caught us. I am SO glad she caught us. Why was there no parade? Because tomorrow, Saturday, is Corp Day. No clue what this is really, but it is only one of three days during the year that the barracks are open to the public and Corp Day Jeep Review will take place. The parade is on Saturday, not today (Friday) even though the website displayed the date as 3/24. Guess where we were at 9AM on Saturday? You guessed it, The Citadel.
Corp Day
Corp Day is The Citadel’s birthday and one of the most highly attended events and we are here to take in the festivities. We walked into the courtyard of one of the barracks then went to grab a seat on the bleachers where we would have a good view of the parade field.
One of the ceremonies for the day was the Summerall Guards transfer of rifles. The Summerall Guards is a distinguished military drill platoon that was formed in 1932. The class of 2023 handed off their rifles to the incoming class of 2024 in a playful ceremony. The incoming class then performed the “Citadel Series” drill. The drill has never been written down and is passed on to the incoming platoon from the outgoing platoon. It has remained unchanged since 1932. Being selected for the Summerall Guards is one of the highest achievements at The Citadel. They were very impressive.
After the Summerall Guards were finished, all the cadets marched onto the field by regiment and lined up. The President of the school and the Regimental Commander climbed in a bronco (not a jeep) and reviewed the troops. Once that was complete, the regiments one by one marched the perimeter of the field, saluting the President, staff and distinguished guests as the passed by.
Once all the festivities were finished, the cadets marched to the original home of The Citadel in downtown Charleston.
Charleston
From The Citadel we drove on into Charleston. We have been to Charleston two other times but only for a few hours each time. This time I want to see as much as possible. I found an app for a walking tour of the city and downloaded it, and Bill had an idea that we should ride our bikes.
We drove the route first to make sure it was “bike friendly” since neither of us have a lot of experience with riding in the city, with traffic and pedestrians. The route didn’t look too bad and we even found free 6-hour parking at The Battery. We found a spot, parked the jeep, unloaded the bikes and set off on our adventure. And an adventure it was…
What Were We Thinking?
This is my takeaway from the day, DO NOT DO A WALKING TOUR ON A BIKE! I was nervous riding on some of the busy streets, the skinny ones with big buses coming down them. Bill was nervous because I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) keep up with him. We were stopping frequently to listen to the app tour, which I remember nothing of what was said. It’s hard to look at the area when you are zooming by on your bike and you can forget about taking pictures. It was not pretty and it did not make for a pleasant afternoon, but it wasn’t something cocktails and talking it out didn’t fix.
What would I do differently? Ride your bikes around Charleston. It is a very bike friendly city, and it was fun riding through the streets. But don’t try to sightsee while you are doing it. Enjoy the bike ride then lock the bikes up and explore on foot. There were so many gorgeous historic houses on those cobblestone streets that I would have liked to have looked at longer and read the placards and take some photos, but it didn’t work out that way.
Historic Charleston is a beautiful area packed with a tremendous amount of history and many areas to explore. I am sure we will be back to see more sometime in the future.
Fort Sumter
Are you wondering why we didn’t visit Fort Sumter? I mean it is a pretty significant part of American History. The answer is because we visited Fort Sumter 10 years ago when we were in Charleston. I didn’t really see the need to spend the $70 for us to go back out there. We did, however, stop at the visitor center to stamp the passport book and buy our pin. 😉
What’s Next?
We are headed back to Mebane, North Carolina for another visit with the NC Butrico’s. Wonder what adventures we’ll have there?
