Video Category: History
Oct 2008 Magnolia Plantation (Charleston, SC)
Time: 3:42
Originally a rice plantation, Magnolia became known for its gardens after the Reverend John Grimke Drayton inherited the property in the 1840s and began to rework its gardens in an English style. According to legend, he built the gardens to lure his bride south from her native Philadelphia. He was among the first to utilize Camellia japonica in an outdoor setting (1820s), and is said to have introduced the first azaleas to America. Dripping with pink and red azalea flowers and framed by live oak trees, the gardens of Magnolia on the Ashley were quite well known in the Antebellum period, and were photographed by Mathew Brady, who would later become famous for his photographs of the American Civil War. Another visitor to Magnolia in this period was John James Audubon for whom Magnolia's Audubon Swamp Garden is named.