BOONE HALL PLANTATION

Today I went to a plantation. As I mentioned before, I am a die hard Gone With The Wind fan and I imagine plantations to all look like Tara. I read a lot about what to expect to see on the tour and decided this was the plantation to visit.

John Boone received a land grant in the Carolinas.  He ended up marrying the "girl next door" whose dowry was acreage adjacent to his.  All their land together made up Boone Hall Plantation.  He originally wanted to produce rice on the plantation.  However, the brackish water on the plantation was not good for rice fields.  So, cotton became the crop of choice.  Bricks were also made from the clay that was abundant on the plantation.  A plantation owner was someone who owned over 100 acres of land and at least 100 slaves.  Mr. Boone was a plantation owner.

As you drive in the plantation, you drive down the Avenue of Oaks.  Beautiful.  Just what I expected.  These huge, old live oak trees line the road and lead right to the house.

Not only is there the big house, but there is also a portion known as Slave Street.  There are 9 original slave homes on this plantation.  Each one contained different themes with different items.  The first home was set up as the slaves' praise house. The second house was set up with sweetgrass baskets and quilts.  The quilts a lot of times had secret messages sewn into them.  It may be instructions for slaves that were escaping or where they could find help once escaped.  The same thing was true with the songs sung or messages preached at the praise house. There was a demonstration given at the last house on the way of life for the slave.  A woman, dressed in period style of a slave, took you back in time to portray the practices and lifestyle of a slave in the Carolinas in the 1800s. This portrayal was only done 3 times a day and our schedule did not permit us to see this.  From all the info I read on their brochures, this is suppose to be really good and a "Visitors Favorite".  There is also a historic talk given by one of the guides on Slave Street 3 times a day.

The original slaves' houses

Two original quilts made by slaves on Boone Hall Plantation. They are displayed in a glassed in shadow box.

 

Typical set up in the slave's house.  There was a fireplace with a kettle hanging in the fireplace.  There were a couple of chairs and a table located on the other side of the room.  All of the homes were one room.

When you arrive, you need to visit the hospitality center and get your time for the tour of the house.  They are done every 30 minutes.  You only get to tour the bottom floor of the house and no pictures are allowed.  They have ladies dressed in period time that give the tours.  The house has been used in 2 television shows.  In the mini-series North and South, it was Patrick Swayze's home and it was also used in the mini-series, Queen, which was the last one in the Roots series.  The outside gardens and acreage of the house were also used in The Notebook.  They have pictures hung on one wall of different shots of the filming that went on in all the shows.

The house

 

The gardens were located on one side as you approached the big house.

This is the hospitality house.

My tour guide.  Her name was Bridgette.

One of the windows on the back side of the house as you exited the house.

I also went on the trolley tour that took you through the back acreage of the plantation.  This is a working plantation.  They grow tomatoes, cantaloupes, honeydew melons, corn, strawberries, blueberries, muscadines, and many more that I can't remember.  During certain times of the year, they have a strawberry festival and blueberry festival and the public can come out and pick their own berries.  During October, they grow a corn maze that kids can wind their way through, along with, a haunted city/woods.  There is also a pumpkin patch.  There is an area where they host a concert each year for about 4 to 5 thousand people.  They also have an area where they grow some veggies for one of the area chain of grocery stores.  They also have a small area that is still designated for cotton.

You could literally spend a full day seeing everything that is included in the price of your tour.  I thought it was well worth the money.  There is also a diner on site that sells sandwiches, drinks, and ice cream.  There is also a cotton gin building that is under remodeling and will become a restaurant, again.  It had been a restaurant, had some damage and deterioration, was closed and began some restoration.  I'm not sure when they expect it to reopen, but I think it will be a cool place once it is reopened.

If you are in the Charleston area and plantations interest you, go to this one.  You get a lot for your money and it is not too spread out where you can't walk from one place to another.

This is what you see as you leave the gates of the house.

This is the cotton gin building that is under renovation.  The supports are not on the outside of the building to keep the walls from falling.  They are there to hurricane proof the building.

On my drive out, I thought this was a good photo op!