Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens
Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens is in Charleston, South Carolina, and we visited on July 2, 2025. I have always wanted to see one of the plantations with the row of big oak trees and this is the one! The amazing Oak Tree row that leads to the house was totally amazing! It is seen in "North and South" with Patrick Swayze riding down the avenue, and"The Notebook" was also filmed here. "Scarlett" (1994) miniseries, a sequel to"Gone with the Wind" was filmed here, as well as "Alex Haley's Queen" (1993) and others.
Boone Hall was founded in 1681 by Major John Boone (1632 in England to 1706) and his wife, Elizabeth Patey (1665-1732) who had 7 children. Theophilus Patey in 1681 gave 400 acres of his land on the Wampocheeone Creek (now Boone Hall Creek) to his daughter, Elizabeth, upon her marriage to John Boone. The Boone family owned the plantation for more than 130 years until 1811.
One of their daughters was Sarah Boone (1705-1743) married Captain Hugh Hext, Jr. (1681-1732) and had a daughter named Sarah Boone Hext (1724-1792). Sarah Boone Hext married an Irish immigrant and physician, Dr. John Rutledge (1713-1792) and had 8 children, two of which were John and Edward Rutledge, who are forefather’s of our country and of which I am related by Rutledge DNA.
Therefore, the original owners of Boone Hall Plantation, John and Elizabeth Boone, had two great-grandsons, brothers John and Edward Rutledge (daughter Sarah Boone, grand-daughter Sarah Boone Hext, great-grandsons).
In 1743, John and Elizabeth Boone's oldest son Captain Thomas Boone is credited with the 1743 planting of the first moss-draped entry-way of oaks and produced the plantation’s first successful cash crop of indigo for the European market. I was disappointed that not much of the original Boone owners was mentioned during our trip and of the tour of the home. They were only the first owners and there was more talk about later owners.
Son Thomas Boone left the to his son, John Boone, who later left it to his nephew, also John Boone. John’s widow, Sarah Gibbes Boone, then sold the property to Thomas Vardell in 1811, from which time it never returned to the Boone family.
The most amazing part of our tour of Boone Hall Plantation was the presentation of the lady who shared about the Gullah slaves who lived here. I only have a small snippet in the above video, but if you search YouTube you can find more of her show. She was an amazing singer and storyteller. This is place #22 of 25 from our week long trip across South Carolina.
When we first entered the plantation, we thought it was amazing, but this is not the row of oaks that is to come as you drive further down.
These photos were taken while filming through the windshield and are not that fantastic.
When we first parked the truck, we did not have a chance to go to where they suggested we go to learn how to tour the place because a guided ride was getting ready to take off, so we jumped on and toured the grounds.
When we got off, we still did not get tour information because we went straight with the group of people over to the house where we attended another guided tour. This is the walkway to the house from the parking lot.
The front of the house is set up for presentations or weddings with seating, which I think detracts from the home. I could not film or photograph inside the house.
I like the image with the people for size perspective.
The show about the Gullah people was at the building on the left in this photo. The Dock House was straight ahead down the road.
The Creek was a primary resource for transportation of crops grown at the plantation.
They have events in this building, but on the other side is the dock with a great view.
This is coming back out from the dock and looking at the alley of trees.
In each of these buildings was a display of information. Walking inside each building one can gain a lot of knowledge.
The parking lot was at the left of these two buildings.
We enjoyed walking around in the gardens.
