Having grown up in Texas, which is where the Old South meets the Wild West, I had always been curious about the real South. I saw photos of the houses in Charleston, SC, or read Gone With the Wind, or saw films set on plantations and thought that I’d like to see all of that someday. The trip down the East Coast in 1999 was my first exposure to South Carolina and Georgia.
From Myrtle Beach, we continued down the South Carolina coast to Brookgreen Gardens. This is a sculpture garden created in the 1930s from four rice plantations that had fallen into ruin after the American Civil War. One of the former plantations (The Oaks) had been owned by the husband of Aaron Burr’s daughter, Theodosia, who disappeared at sea during the War of 1812 when sailing from Georgetown, South Carolina to New York City.
After a stop in Georgetown, we went on to Charleston, South Carolina, named after King Charles II of England and founded in 1670. Portions of both the American Revolution and the American Civil War were fought at Charleston. Revolutionary War action included the Battle of Sullivan’s Island in 1776 and the Siege of Charleston in 1780. The first full battle of the Civil War occurred in April of 1861 when confederate General Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, which was held by the Union at the time. In 1865, Union General Sherman marched into Charleston. South Carolina had been the first state to secede from the Union so Sherman wanted to punish them after he completed his march to the sea.
The afternoon we arrived, we had a walking tour around the historic area of town. We saw the oldest museum in the country, which was founded in 1773. The Exchange and Provost, which has been a custom house, a mercantile exchange, a barracks, and a military prison in its long history also hosted several events for George Washington. I found on this trip that good old George had pretty much been everywhere — busy fella.
The Old Slave Mart had been turned into an African American museum. We saw Cabbage Row (1783) which was portrayed in Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess” as Catfish Row. The Rainbow Row, consists of colorfully painted houses that were built in the 1700s. We went in a house that was near the Battery and learned about a period of time in 1718 when the pirate Blackbeard terrorized the city. He managed to do quite a bit of plundering plus kidnapping and holding people for ransom before the city finally managed to convince him to move on.
We began the following day with a visit to Magnolia Plantation. This rice plantation was owned by the Drayton Family beginning in 1670. The original house had burned down in 1810. Sherman burned down the second house in 1865. The current house was built elsewhere in the 1700s, taken apart and rebuilt on the foundations of the original house. Then it was enlarged. So the house is a combination of Colonial and Victorian, with plantation-style verandas.
We toured the entire house. The rooms were large and the ceilings were high (so the heat would rise up away from the people). I remember houses in Texas with fourteen foot ceilings for the same reason, but they weren’t plantations. They were just old houses.
In one area of the porch on the second floor was a bench designed for courting. It had rockers on the ends and would rock and sway while the couple sat on each end until they ended up sliding towards the center (as the board is bowed). It is known as both a courting bench and a joggling board. It was said that, if you had one of these on your porch, you would never have an unmarried daughter.
The property has a beautiful foot bridge (see photo below) and they gave tours around the property so we could see the wildlife that lived in and around the swamps. In addition to herons and egrets and quite a few other kinds of birds, we saw a large number of alligators — a few from fairly close up (see photo below). I was quite glad to be in a jeep, which could hopefully move faster than the alligator.
After our visit to Magnolia Plantation, we returned to Charleston, where we had a couple hours of free time. Mom and I went to lunch at a place called A.W. Shucks, which is a sea food chain, but had good food. We had the She Crab Soup and some butterfly shrimp, stuffed with crab and wrapped in bacon. It was all delicious. After lunch, we walked around the historic commercial area. I found a place that had some Civil War artifacts, which was where I bought an intact bullet (to go with the smushed one from Fredericksburg). I also found a mourning pin, a Union uniform button, the cap from a powder flask, and a couple other small items. I then bought some sweet grass hot mats that have seen quite a bit of use ever since when having a nice dinner in the dining room.
From Charleston, we traveled on to Beaufort, South Carolina. The historic district contains several antebellum houses that are still privately owned. You can walk by them, drive by them, or take a carriage ride by them, but only one house is open to the public. We weren’t there long enough to allow for a visit. But I really liked the town. A fair amount of the film Forrest Gump was filmed there and in Savannah. The harbor was used as the location of Bubba Gump Shrimp.
Beaufort was also close to Fort Wagner, where the 54th Massachusetts was slaughtered as portrayed in the film Glory. The survivors were taken to Beaufort after that battle in order to recuperate. Those who died at Fort Wagner and were dumped into the mass grave there, were disinterred and reburied in Beaufort National Cemetery after the war ended. Whenever I feel the need for a good cry, I put that movie on. The entire last half hour (once the 54th begins its march to Fort Wagner) brings me to strongly flowing tears every time (it’s disgusting really — I just blubber).
We had lunch in Hilton Head, South Carolina and continued on to Savannah, Georgia. We were staying in a hotel just a block from Factors’ Walk. This had been the main export area for cotton as well as the main import area for slaves. Several antique shops, restaurants, pubs, and galleries are now in the buildings original used for the buying and selling of both cotton and slaves. Out on the harbor side of the buildings, the replica of “The Bounty” that had been used in the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando, was just arriving. It was to be docked in Savannah for a few days. The ship ended up sinking in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy.
That evening, we went to dinner at The Pirates’ House. The building was originally built in 1734, making it the oldest in Georgia. A tavern was established there in 1753. They have several copies of the book “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson and claim that Captain Flint died in a room upstairs. Although the book does say that Captain Flint died in Savannah, he was a totally fictional character, so they are just pulling your leg.
Emma Kelly, who features in the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (and the movie version too), was playing piano upstairs on the night we were there, so we all went up to see her. She was playing “Moon River”.
The food was really good. I had the Pecan Fried Chicken (a specialty) with Bourbon Pecan Pie for dessert.
After dinner, we embarked on a nighttime “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” plus “Haunted Savannah” tour. The book had come out in 1994 and the film in 1997. Our visit was in 1999, so the film was still fresh on everyone’s minds. Both the book and film locations were pointed out to us as well as the most haunted locations in the city — and there are a lot of them. I enjoy ghost tours. I like hearing the stories behind the hauntings.
The next day, we took a walking tour, which started at Factors’ Walk and continued along Bull Street into the part of town with all of the squares and mansions. The church from the opening of Forrest Gump was along the way. This was where the feather was floating around prior to landing near Forrest at the bus stop. The bus stop had also been located in Savannah at Chippewa Square (it was just there for the movie).
There are times when Mom and I have enough of the “museum shuffle” on a walking tour and depart from it to do our own thing as long as we know where we are and how to get back to wherever we need to be after the tour. In this case, we had a lot we wanted to see in a short period of time, felt we could cover ground faster on our own, knew exactly where we were and were still in walking distance to the hotel. So we deserted the tour at Mercer House (after telling the guide, so they wouldn’t worry).
Mercer House wasn’t open to the public at that time. For those not familiar with “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, this was where millionaire antiques dealer Jim Williams had lived. It was also where the shooting that killed his assistant, Danny Hansford, took place. Roughly six months after Williams was finally acquitted of killing Hansford (after four trials and nearly a decade), Williams himself died of heart failure in the same room in which Hansford died. His body was found in nearly the same spot where Hansford’s body had lain.
A short walk from Mercer House is Armstrong House, the home of Williams’ lawyer, Sonny Seiler. Seiler was also the owner of Uga, the bulldog mascot for the University of Georgia. Forsythe Park (the one with the beautiful fountain) is a short walk from Armstrong House.
After taking photos of the part and fountain, we back tracked up Bull Street to the Green-Meldrin House. This was the house used by General Sherman as his headquarters, when he stayed in Savannah for a while after his march to the sea. Then we stopped for lunch and continued on to the Owen-Thomas House.
This house had been built in 1816 in the Regency style and had remained in the hands of the original family until it became a museum. It was said that Lafayette gave a speech from the balcony on the side of the house in 1825. We could tour the entire house. I love it when I can see an entire property as it gives a pretty clear picture of what life would have been like there.
The Isaiah Davenport House, in the Federal style, was the last house we toured before heading back to the hotel and then dinner at the Exchange Tavern (a former cotton warehouse, built in 1799) on Factor’s Walk. Davenport’s widow converted the house into a boarding house after his death in 1827. Over the years, the neighborhood became run down and the house was scheduled for demolition in 1955. But a group of concerned citizens joined forces, purchased the house, and began restoring it. It was opened as a museum on 1963 and was the first house to be saved and restored by Savannah’s preservation movement.
