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West Ashley

Hickory Hill Community events: Events section

West Of is your source for all things West Ashley. News, Business, Schools, Dining, Arts & Entertainment stories that describe living in West Ashley.
Check out upcoming events and activities in the Community Calendar section of West of Free Press. Also in print and available in most West Ashley shops and dinning establishments.

Pizza A Modo Mio “Come Taste The Difference”

History Lover’s Guide

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site
1500 Old Towne Road
Charleston, SC 29407
southcarolinaparks.com/charles-towne-landing

In 1969, Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Waring sold more than 650 acres, including the site of the original Albemarle Point settlement, to the Sate of South Carolina. In celebration of South Carolina’s tricentennial, a park was developed at the site in 1970, and the following year the Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site officially opened. The park interprets the history of those first colonists with an impressive museum and walking and biking trails that lead visitors to a reproduction of the original ten-acre settlement, including a segment of the palisade wall. Moored at the creek is the Adventure, a replica of a sixty-five-foot-ling seventeenth-century trading vessel. The park also contains an animal farm with a diverse collection.

Drayton Hall
3380 Ashley River Road
Charleston, SC 29414
draytonhall.org

Seven generations of Draytons lived at Drayton Hall until the family transferred the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1974. Today, visitors can tour the original eighteenth-century main house and see the ruins of the north flanker building and garden house. Guests can also visit an intact eighteenth-century privy and a nineteenth-century main caretaker’s house, which has been repurposed as an interpretive space to tell the story of Drayton Hall’s history, particularly as relates to the site’s African American community. An African American cemetery dating back to the late eighteenth century with a wrought-iron memorial arch that reads “Leave ‘Em Rest” designed by proteges of the famed Charleston blacksmith Philip Simmons stands near the entrance. The main house tor is an audio tour, but there are guides stationed in the house to answer questions.
Please bring your smartphone and headphones or earbuds for your tour.

Middleton Place
4300 Ashley River Road
Charleston, SC 29414
middletonplace.org

Located along the Ashley River, Middleton Place is a rare survivor of the American Revolution, Civil War, economic upheavals, and natural disasters.
The land where present-day Middleton Place is located was originally part of a 1675 land grant but was not settled until the early eighteenth century when John Williams established a rice plantation and built a home on the property in the 1730s. In 1741, Henry Middleton married Mary Williams, the only daughter and heiress of John Williams. Included in Mary’s dowry was her father’s house and the land that Henry would name Middleton Place. Henry and Mary had seven children, including their firstborn, future signer of the Declaration of Independence Arthur Middleton, born at Middleton Place in 1742.
Designated a National Historic Site in 1972, Middleton Place opened for public visitation in 1975. Today, Middleton Place is owned and operated by the Middleton Place Foundation, which was established by Middleton family descendant Charles Duell in 1974.
Visitors can tour and enjoy a guided tour of the gardens as well as tour the house museum and stable yards. There is also a restaurant and a fifty-five-room inn on the site.