Boone Hall Plantation

Chances are, you’ve seen this house before:

It’s Boone Hall Plantation, which served as Allie’s family’s summer home in the The Notebook. It was also in a little movie called North and South. It’s located about 30 minutes east of Charleston and is really close to where we stayed on Isle of Palms. It’s also the home of the beautiful Avenue of Oaks.

Boone Hall Plantation dates all the way back to 1681when a land grant of 470 acres was given to Major John Boone and his bride Elizabeth as a wedding present from Elizabeth’s father, Theophilus Patey. But it wasn’t until 1790 that a house was constructed on the plantation. The original house is long gone – the house that’s standing here now is actually not all that old – it was built in the 1930s by Canadian Thomas Stone.

Thomas Stone had to return to Canada around 1940 and never returned to Boone Hall. The McRae family bought the plantation in 1955 and it’s still owned by the McRae family. They live in the upper storey of the house, so only a few rooms on the main floor are open to the public. Cameras aren’t allowed inside the house, and this is the only picture of the interior that I was able to find online (thank you Julia at Hooked on Houses!)

I’m guessing these pictures are pretty old, because the rooms are quite a bit different now.When you're looking at the front of the house, the dining room is to the right of the front door. I want to say it’s red – I’m almost positive it is! To the left of the front door and a few steps down is the library. It’s got a super-high ceiling and the walls are painted a really dark purple that looks almost black. Close to this colour – AC139N Aubergine from Color Guild

There’s gorgeous crown moulding and trim. and tall built-in book cabinets around the room painted white. And lots of old furniture and knicknacks.

Straight ahead of the front door is a curved floating staircase. Under the staircase and through a doorway is sort of a conservatory. I REALLY wish I could have taken pictures of this room – the ceiling has curves and arches and is made from brick, and the floor is brick too. A wall of windows and doors look out over a brick patio.

The plantation was open to the public in 1957 and great efforts have been made to preserve the original structures and gardens. This smokehouse is the oldest building on the property – it was built in 1750 using bricks made on the plantation.

Something that we don’t seen on brick structures here in Canada – mortar with shells!

There are also nine of the 27 original slave cabins still standing that date back to around 1800. This section of the plantation is called Slave Street. For me, Slave Street is the most fascinating part of Boone Hall. Each cabin tells a part of the story of slavery, from the very beginning right up to the end of slavery in 1861. The story continues from post-slavery right up to icons of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. I spent a long time reading the plaques on the walls and watching & listening to the presentations in each cabin. Very sad, but fascinating as well. Slaves at Boone Hall Plantation grew rice and indigo crops, and they also made bricks. The slave cabins were made with the brick “seconds”.

The Gullah Theater is outside of the last cabin. Artist Zenobia Washington delivered a wonderful presentation about Gullah. Slaves came to America from different areas of Africa and spoke different languages. The Gullah language and culture evolved primarily in South Carolina and Georgia from all these different African languages and backgrounds. Zenobia makes and sells these colourful dolls at her presentations (I bought the dolls in the middle and on the far right in the bottom row).

I could have spent the whole day at Boone Hall Plantation, exploring and taking in all the history and culture. If you ever go to South Carolina, definitely make time for a visit.

Happy weekend!