Drayton Hall

The house was begun in 1738 and completed in 1742, using both free and slave labor. The house stands in a 630-acre site that is part of the plantation based on indigo and rice. Drayton Hall is the only plantation house on the Ashley River to survive the American Revolution and the Civil War intact. Seven generations of Drayton heirs preserved the house in all but original condition, though the flanking outbuildings have not survived: an earthquake destroyed the laundry house in 1886 and a hurricane destroyed the kitchen in 1893.

There is fine plasterwork in several of the rooms of the main floor, which is set above a raised basement where servants prepared meals and lived.