America’s Oldest Landscaped Gardens Showcase 300 Years of History In Charleston, SC

Middleton Place, Charleston SC

Middleton Place survived a lot: the Revolution, the Civil War, an earthquake that leveled most of the main house.

But its real story is about the people – from the politically powerful Middletons to the enslaved workers who made it all possible.

The gardens might be the draw, but the history here goes way deeper than perfectly trimmed hedges. Here are more interesting facts about Charleston’s Middleton Place.

This ancient oak has seen it all

A massive live oak stands by the Ashley River as a living witness to history. Its trunk is over 10.44 feet wide and it’s 67 feet tall.

Though not super tall, its branches stretch out wide with some being several feet thick. This tough tree has made it through hurricanes, earthquakes, and two wars.

Back in 2004, experts measured it at 4,820 cubic feet of wood, making it once the biggest tree in the eastern United States.

Until not long ago, you could sit on a wooden bench that went all the way around its trunk and enjoy its shade.

These twin lakes play tricks on your eyes

When you look at the Butterfly Lakes from the main house spot, they seem perfectly matched in size and shape – but they’re not!

This clever trick, called forced perspective, was a popular garden design in the 1700s. From above, these lakes look like butterfly wings. Workers dug them by hand in the 1740s, and they’re about 800 feet long by 100 feet wide.

Digging them meant moving more than 4,000 cubic yards of dirt! The grassy path between them lines up perfectly with the central path from the house all the way to the Ashley River.

Water buffalo ended up in NYC’s zoo

You won’t find many Southern plantations that used water buffalo in their rice fields, but Middleton Place did. These Asian animals worked better in mud than regular oxen.

During the Civil War, Union soldiers ate five of these unusual animals. The other six were taken north to New York. Records from 1870 show they turned up in New York City’s Central Park Zoo, where they stayed on display for over 15 years.

In 1987, Middleton Place brought water buffalo back as part of their living history program, bringing in animals from Southeast Asia similar to the original herd.

The first American camellias grow here

When you visit in winter, you’ll see camellias that trace back to 1786, when French plant expert André Michaux gave four plants to the Middletons.

One original plant, nicknamed “Reine des Fleurs” (Queen of Flowers), still grows here after more than 235 years. Now the plantation has over 4,000 camellia plants with about 1,000 different types.

These flowers bloom from November through March, making winter surprisingly colorful. If you come in February, you can join the annual Camellia Walks with guides who’ll show you these winter-blooming treasures.

Living tunnels are made from woven trees

If you walk through the garden tunnels, you’re seeing a rare gardening skill called pleaching. Gardeners weave branches from different trees to create living archways and corridors.

This technique goes back to Roman times but became really popular in 1600s European gardens. At Middleton Place, the oldest pleached walkway was started in 1841 and has been kept up for over 180 years.

Keeping these tunnels in shape takes year-round work from special gardeners who trim the branches four times a year. These green passages create mini-climates that protect tender plants when Charleston gets occasional freezes.

Enslaved women ran the gardens

Old records show that enslaved women managed much of the expert gardening at Middleton Place. Four women—Willoughby, Louisa, Andrewina, and Priscilla—knew advanced plant care and kept up the exotic garden plants in the 19th century.

Account books from 1823-1849 show their special roles and which garden sections they were in charge of. When visitors came while owners were away, these women led tours, explaining the rare plants to guests.

Their know-how was crucial for growing hundreds of camellia varieties through cuttings and grafting, jobs that needed serious plant knowledge.

An earthquake finished what fire started

On August 31, 1886, a huge earthquake delivered the final blow to Middleton Place. This 7.3-magnitude quake, the strongest ever recorded on the East Coast, knocked down what was left of the main house and north wing after the Civil War fire.

The earthquake hit just six miles from the plantation. Shaking damaged garden terraces, changed water flow, and flooded parts of the property. Fixing the damage cost over $10,000 (worth about $300,000 today).

The gardens were mostly left untouched for 39 years after that, and many rare plants died during this time of neglect.

A Declaration signer was held prisoner here

Arthur Middleton, who signed the Declaration of Independence, was captured during the Revolutionary War. British forces took him during the 1780 Siege of Charleston and sent him to St. Augustine, Florida.

He stayed in prison for 14 months until his exchange in July 1781. While he was locked up, British troops ransacked Middleton Place, cutting the heads off many garden statues and stealing family treasures.

Arthur’s personal silver collection, weighing 1,686 ounces, was buried under the garden to keep it safe from British troops. You can now see his fancy writing desk, hidden during the occupation, in the house museum.

The gardens took decades to bring back

After the Civil War, the gardens at Middleton Place were neglected for almost 60 years until Heningham Smith started restoring them in 1925.

She spent 15 years carefully documenting and replanting the original design, spending more than $25,000 each year (about $400,000 in today’s money). Her team replanted over 60,000 plants during her time there.

In 1941, the Garden Club of America gave her their highest award, the Bulkley Medal, saying Middleton Place had “the most important and interesting garden in America.”

She employed 47 full-time gardeners at the peak of restoration, many of whom were descendants of formerly enslaved workers.

Rice made this place wealthy

You can see a recreated rice field showing how Carolina Gold rice was grown. This demonstration field is planted with original heirloom seeds and covers a quarter-acre along the Ashley River.

The field has the original wooden gates from 1850 that controlled flooding. Growing rice took 15 different steps from planting to processing. At its peak in 1850, Middleton Place made 1.5 million pounds of rice each year.

Digs in 1995 found the foundations of an 1851 tide-powered rice mill that could process 1,200 bushels daily, one of the biggest in the area.

British troops surrendered here on paper

In January 1783, the terms for removing British troops from Southern colonies were signed at Middleton Place. This happened because Henry Middleton was an important political figure as the second president of the First Continental Congress.

The document, written in the library of the north wing, had 17 rules for troop withdrawal and prisoner exchanges. British officers Colonel Thomas Dundas and Major Archibald McArthur attended the signing.

Four original quill pens used for signing are kept in the house museum. This agreement led to 5,000 British troops leaving Charleston by December 1783.

Tax problems nearly split up the estate

In the 1970s, Middleton Place almost got broken up because of estate tax issues. Charles Duell, a Middleton descendant, set up the Middleton Place Foundation in 1974 to stop the property from being sold after his death.

The IRS had figured potential estate taxes at $5.7 million. Creating the Foundation moved 110 acres into non-profit status, saving the historic center. The transfer meant cataloging over 10,000 artifacts and papers in the Middleton collection.

This plan has kept family involvement going, with Duell serving as president until 2013. The Foundation now manages 110 acres of what was once a 7,000-acre property.

Visiting Middleton Place

You’ll find Middleton Place at 4300 Ashley River Road, 15 miles northwest of downtown Charleston. It’s open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but closed on Christmas Day.

Check the website for current admission prices, including options for students and children. The House Museum costs extra.

Try to arrive early to join the daily tours that start at 11:00 AM, including garden walks and the popular Beyond the Fields tour about slavery at the plantation.