Brookgreen Gardens

Brookgreen Gardens. Ever Changing. Simply Amazing.. Established on four former rice plantations in 1931 by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, Brookgreen Gardens is a non-profit, outdoor museum. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark because of Anna Hyatt Huntington’s significance as an artist and patron of the arts and Brookgreen’s exceptional quality of interpreting American heritage. , Thousands of acres in the Lowcountry History and Wildlife Preserve are rich with evidence of the great rice plantations of the 1800s. Winner of the 2011 South Carolina Heritage Tourism Award, Brookgreen Gardens brings to life important historical elements of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Programs are available by foot, by boat, or deep into the Preserve by overland vehicle. , The Oaks Plantation History and Nature Trail affords opportunities to see the archaeological site of the former plantation house, the foundation of the spring house, Alston family cemetery, and the slave village. Interpretive panels showcase the history. , The Lowcountry Trail depicts archaeological digs that reveal the remains of three structures. Interpretive panels provide insights of the lives of the plantation owner, the overseer, and the enslaved Africans. , At Brookgreen Gardens, visitors don’t just tour a luxurious garden and view world-renowned sculpture, they relive history. , (photograph captions, left to right.) , “Rice mill chimney built by enslaves Africans on Laurel Hill Plantation, circa 1840” . A portrait of Anna Hyatt Huntington . “Hammond Heyward, a local brick mason, walks down the windswept Live Oak Avenue of Brookgreen Plantation in 1930. In the distance, the wall of the new sculpture garden is under construction. Comprised of four individual rice plantations, Brookgreen Gardens today covers 9,000 acres.” &bull “Isaac and Martha Deas lived in the gatehouse of Brookgreen Plantation, shown behind them, in the late 1890s. The house was located adjacent to the plantation’s entrance on the River Road, one of the three trails dating from the 18th century, on the Waccamaw Neck in northeastern Georgetown County.”