The Old South

This Drive Comes From...

National Geographic Driving Guide: Florida and the Southeast

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From Charleston to Savannah, Georgia, South Carolina’s Low Country sings a gentle melody of broad grassy marshes and lush barrier islands that temper the southern coast. Historic cities and towns add a rich harmony to the natural landscape.

Start your tour in the bustling town of Summerville, once a fancy retreat for those escaping the Low Country’s summer vapors. Then take the Ashley River Road past three of the country’s finest plantations, survivors of the Civil War. In Charleston, grande dame of southern cities, visit places of great beauty and historic import. Heading south on US 17, you can take coastal excursions that offer a look at developed Kiawah Island and more natural Edisto Island. Next, stroll or drive the quiet, shady streets of lovely Beaufort, capital of the South Carolina Sea Islands. The town’s graceful old houses tell stories of war and peace from the American Revolution to yesterday’s hurricane. Bridges and roads traverse islands settled by freed slaves and lead to an uncrowded state park that’s half woods, half beach. South of town, stop by the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island and the tony resorts of Hilton Head. From here it’s an easy, pretty drive down toward that sultry southern flower, Savannah. CONTINUED

- Summerville
- Charleston
- Edisto Island
- Beaufort
- Hilton Head Island

(Continued From Top)

Summerville

Antique shop, Main Street, Summerville

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

Rice planters began coming to Summerville (Chamber of Commerce +1 543 873 2931) in the mid-18th century to escape the oppressive, malarial swamps along the coastal rivers. Not knowing the connection between mosquitoes and disease, they thought the pines and higher elevation made for healthy living. Drive out Carolina Avenue to see some of the charming cottages they built. Main Street is a friendly blend of shops, restaurants, shade trees, azaleas, and camellias.
Take South Carolina 61, the Ashley River Road, south through archways of moss-hung live oaks to the plantations facing the river, once their main highway. Boasting some of the oldest formally landscaped gardens in the country, Middleton Place (South Carolina 61. +1 843 556 6020 or 800 782 3608. Adm. fee) is the crown jewel of area plantations. Henry Middleton, whose son signed the Declaration of Independence, began the project in 1741. A hundred slaves worked for ten years to create a New World mirror of European elegance. Pathways wind past year-round blooms, and a terraced front lawn sweeps toward two wing-shaped ponds, presenting an unforgettable picture.
More extensive, though not as orderly, the profuse plantings 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] south at Magnolia Plantation and its Gardens (South Carolina 61. +1 843 571 1266. Adm. fee) make for a good half-day visit. As at Middleton, the original house was burned by Sherman’s troops; and marble cherubs in the 50-acre [20.2-hectare] gardens, begun in the 1680s, still show scars of potshots taken by Union looters. Built after the war, the current house, with its big veranda and stucco walls, looks more like a rambling inn than a plantation home; tours outline postbellum plantation life.
For unadulterated architecture, visit Drayton Hall (South Carolina 61. +1 843 766 0188. Adm. fee), the only Ashley River plantation house to survive the Civil War intact. Completed in 1742 by plant er John Drayton (whose father owned Magnolia Plantation), the Georgian-Palladian house is a masterwork of symmetry and craftsmanship. Unfurnished, the house gives a sense of time’s passage. Among highlights are the double staircase of hand-carved mahogany, yellow poplar molding, and a portico with sweeping views of the grounds rolling to a subtropical wilderness.
Charleston got its start in 1670 at Charles Towne Landing (South Carolina 171. +1 843 852 4200. Adm. fee), across the Ashley River from the present-day city. The 663-acre [268.4-hectare] park preserves the English settlement site, and 7 miles [11.3 kilometers] of trails lead past gardens, a native animal forest, and a reproduction of a 17th-century ship. Bike rentals are available.

Charleston

Charlseston, south of Broad Street

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

Charleston is not the quintessential southern city, because there is none other like it. Though new growth surrounds it like tree rings, Charleston remains Old South at the core. You can stroll or take a carriage past the colorful single and double houses, the neat gardens tucked behind lacy iron gates, the waterfront mansions with their gracious piazzas. Start at the Visitor Center (375 Meeting St. +1 843 853 8000 or 800 868 8118) for maps, information, and a multimedia show (Fee). Then cross the street to the Charleston Museum (360 Meeting St. +1 803 722 2996. Adm. fee) to see exhibits on rice and cotton cultivation, slavery, and other Low Country historic pursuits.
Drive downtown and park in one of the lots near Market Street, venue for many clubs and restaurants. The shopping district is along King Street; government buildings, churches, and inns stretch along Meeting Street. Off these two streets in either direction stand fine houses, large and small. The Gibbes Museum of Art (135 Meeting St. +1 843 722 2706. Adm. fee) maintains a good collection of Japanese woodblock prints, Charleston landscapes, and portraiture of eminent South Carolinians.
Two blocks east, the graceful Huguenot Church (136 Church St. +1 843 722 4385. Mon.-Fri. March-May and Sept.-Nov.) dates from 1845, the third church built here by French Protestants. From the sidewalk you can gawk at the ornate ironwork decorating Dock Street Theatre (135 Church St. +1 843 720 3968. Mon.-Fri.; Fee for performances).
At the east end of Broad Street, a costumed guide beckons visitors to the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon (122 E. Bay St. +1 843 727 2165). A seasoned veteran of the tourist trade, the site offers two floors of interesting exhibits on city history, plus a dank dungeon where pirates and political prisoners were held.

Sweet-grass basket maker, Charleston

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

On the sidewalks at Broad and Meeting Streets, African-American women sit under umbrellas weaving and selling traditional sweet-grass baskets. The city’s grandest houses cluster on the end of the peninsula, south of Broad. (Their lucky residents are sometimes referred to as SOBs.) Choosing among the four houses open to the public is difficult; in each, reverential docents detail the history and inventory of the house as if it were holy writ. The stately Heyward-Washington House (87 Church St. +1 843 722 0354. Adm. fee) was built by a prominent rice planter around 1772. A federal marvel, the classy Nathaniel Russell House (51 Meeting St. +1 843 724 8481. Adm. fee) was completed in 1808 for a wealthy merchant—highlights are the sweet smelling garden and the three-story, freestanding spiral staircase. The 1825 Edmondston-Alston House (21 E. Battery St. +1 843 722 7171. Adm. fee) holds family silver, furniture, and other treasures; its high-ceilinged piazzas frame splendid views of Charleston Harbor. A flair for the dramatic shouts in every corner of the Victorian-style Calhoun Mansion (16 Meeting St. +1 843 722 8205. Feb.-Dec. Wed.-Sun.; Adm. fee), an 1876 showplace with massive walnut doors and a ballroom ceiling that soars 45 feet [13.7 meters] to a domed skylight.

Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston Harbor

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

On the tip of the peninsula, the Battery (White Point Gardens) is an oasis of palmettos and live oaks, salty breezes, and memorials to the Civil War, which began out in the mouth of Charleston Harbor. Boat trips (City Marina, 17 Lockwood Blvd. +1 803 722 1691. Fee) will take you out to Fort Sumter National Monument (+1 843 883 3123. Adm. fee). In April 1861 South Carolina troops bombarded the fort for two days, forcing Federal defenders out and initiating the four long years of war. Park rangers now offer great tours of the site.
Leave the Charleston area on US 17 and follow signs south 17 miles [27.4 kilometers] to exclusive Kiawah Island. The last few miles are, as always in the Sea Islands, a soft prelude of spartina marshes and live oak passageways draped with cobwebs of Spanish moss. Developed by an Arab consortium in the 1970s, lush Kiawah has been decorated with golf courses, tennis courts, and villas that attempt to disappear into the landscape. Unless you’re staying in one of the resort properties, there’s no need to venture out onto the island; in fact, without a specific destination, you cannot pass the guard gate. Just before the gate, however, a road leads to public Beachwalker Park (+1 843 768 2395. Daily May-Sept., weekends April and Oct.; Adm. fee), with a boardwalk, umbrella rentals, and a snack bar.

Edisto Island
Back on US 17, look for South Carolina 162. For another excursion, take this west to South Carolina 174 and on to Edisto Island. The 36-mile [57.9-kilometer] drive tunnels through dense woods, interrupted here and there by a tiny grocery or shanty. After the Civil War, Sherman granted much of the Sea Island territory to freed slaves. The reservation-like system often spawned hopelessly complicated claims among succeeding generations.
Pick up maps at the Chamber of Commerce (430 South Carolina 174. +1 843 869 3867) and head toward the oceanfront, where 1,255-acre [507.9-hectare] Edisto Beach State Park (South Carolina 174. +1 843 869 2756. Vehicle fee mid-March–mid-Nov.) encompasses salt marsh, live oak forest, and 1.5 miles [2.4 kilometers] of beach. The beach area offers palm-shaded picnic tables and bulletin boards with information on loggerhead turtles. A 4-mile [6.4-kilometer] interpretive trail winds through the marsh to an Indian shell mound.

Beaufort

On St. Helena Island

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

Backtrack to US 17 and proceed south on US 21 to Beaufort (Visitor Center, 1106 Carteret St. +1 843 524 3163), an antebellum Shangri-la of mossy oaks and fine old houses with double verandas and raised foundations. The state’s second oldest town got its start in 1711. Occupied by British and then Union forces, Beaufort was spared the destruction of war and today claims nearly a hundred antebellum and pre-Revolutionary houses. According to tradition, British troops stabled horses in the 1724 St. Helena’s Episcopal Church (Church and North Sts. +1 843 522 1712. Mon.-Fri.), and Civil War surgeons used stone slabs in the churchyard as operating tables.
Maintained in a 1798 arsenal, the Beaufort Museum (713 Craven St. +1 843 525 7077. Closed Wed. and Sun.; Adm. fee) displays Native American and plantation artifacts and Civil War weapons. Maps, available at the Visitor Center, indicate the location of such landmarks as the 1834 Henry McKee House (511 Prince St.), purchased by a former slave who helped capture a Confederate ship; and the First African Baptist Church (New and King Sts.), built by freed slaves in 1856 and home of the Hallelujah Singers in the film Forrest Gump. Many inns and private houses have also served as locations for such movies as The Big Chill, The Great Santini, and The Prince of Tides—the last two based on novels by local author Pat Conroy.
Cross the bridge to Ladys Island and St. Helena Island, where the Penn Center (Off US 21. +1 843 838 8563. Tues.-Fri.; Adm. fee) preserves the islands’ African-American heritage with a museum of weavings, pictures, sweet-grass baskets, and recordings of the local Gullah dialect. The shady grove was the site of a school for freed blacks founded in 1862 by Philadelphia Quakers. Gullah ’n’ Geechie Mahn Tours (+1 843 838 7516. Fee) offers black histor y excursions.

Hunting Island State Park

Photograph © Raymond Gehman

Continue out to Hunting Island State Park (US 21. +1 843 838 2011. Adm. fee), a 5,000-acre [2,023.4-hectare] preserve of maritime forest, salt marsh, and beach. You can climb the 132-foot [40.2-meter] lighthouse, built in 1875, for incomparable views of the islands and ocean.
From here, head back on US 21 to South Carolina 802, and follow signs to Parris Island (Visitor Center, Bldg. 283, Blvd. de France. +1 843 525 3650), home of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot; highlights include the late 1800s naval station, sites of early French and Spanish settlements, and huge fields where drill instructors bark at battalions of young warriors, making you very happy you’re on vacation. The Parris Island Museum (+1 843 525 2951) holds weapons, videos, homemade Viet Cong booby traps, and other exhibits presenting solid evidence of the toughness of Marines.

Hilton Head Island
Take South Carolina 170 southwest, crossing the Broad River where it slides into Port Royal Sound. Then follow signs southeast to Hilton Head Island, a barrier island again introduced by vast and beautiful high-grass marshes. One of the East Coast’s largest islands, foot-shaped Hilton Head became a golf and tennis mecca soon after construction of the mainland bridge in 1956.
For those who prefer forests over fairways, there are some pristine spots left, including Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge (US 278, after the first bridge. +1 912 652 4415), which encompasses 4,053 acres [1,640.2 hectares] of woods, marshes, and tidal creeks on plantation lands once owned by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Some 14 miles [23 kilometers] of trails and roads traverse an island that is shared by ospreys, ibises, wood storks, and other coastal birds. Egrets and herons often pose in the shallows just off the causeway. Near the toe of the island, Sea Pines Forest Preserve (Fee) also offers trails through wildlife habitats.
The road down to the dreamy city of Savannah cuts through a primitive subtropical forest. Much of the land is owned by paper companies and the 26,295-acre [10,641-hectare] Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (+1 912 652 4415), a haven for waterfowl, deer, and other wildlife. A drive explores the mirror-flat marshlands, as well as the ruins of rice levees and slave quarters.