I've been stymied in trying to get pictures on my blog....for months!  Very frustrating!  Trying a new online photo storage site to see if I can make it work.  

Here are Barngirl and Gameboy at Drayton Hall Plantation last Friday.

Okay, I got this one in somehow....I inserted the link directly into HTML.  But I can't center it. 

I'll try another one....Drayton Hall....beautiful vista:

 

Hmmm.  Still not centered.  But at least it's THERE, right?  I knew that coffee would help my overworked brain cells.

This is really embarrassing, but I'm pretty sure only my mom will see it anyway.  I'd really like to figure out how I got that top picture so nicely placed.

Here's a photo taken from inside the main front room facing toward what might have been considered the back of the house, as it faced the road and not the river:

 

Well, that's bigger, but still not centered. 

Gameboy and his friend posing on the 2nd floor balcony for me.  Such good boys!

 

Well, that one looks centered.  I goofed with the HTML placement (of which I am totally ignorant).  Just got lucky I think.

 

This is a model of how they think the home originally appeared from the road-side.  The plantation was built on a large piece of land between a major trade route (now Hwy. 61) and the Ashley River.  Building began in 1738, when Geoge Washington was 6 years old!  This is one OLD home!  The building to the right is believed to have been the kitchen, based on archeological evidence.  The outline of the building is still there, and you can see where the central fireplace would have been. 

The other building is less certain, but they think it was some kind of working house for the slaves.

Here is one of the ceiling inside the house:

 

 

Above the mantle in the front , first floor room:

 

Apparently the owner, who was educated in England, wanted local artisans to craft the head of an English Fox to place above the mantle.  It looks more like some kind of wild boar to me.  Our docent explained that it looks like the artist had never SEEN an English fox. 

On the tour, the words we heard over and over were "balance" and "symmetry."  If they had a door into a room, there HAD to be at least the "appearance" of a door to balance the room.  So there were false doors in MANY of the rooms.  They've taken the doors off to show that there was just brick behind.

 

You'll notice the walls look "distressed."  This was not the "IN" look at the time, but this home is PRESERVED in the most original state possible.  All the walls have actually been treated with a preservative to prevent more paint from chipping.  What we're seeing is the original paint, after years (over 250!) of living, 2 wars (Revolutionary and Civil), enemy occupation, generations of families, earthquakes (1886 earthquake destroyed MANY homes in Charleston - estimated to have been 7.6 had there been a Richter scale at that time) and major hurricanes.  It's really remarkable that it is so well preserved!

Even the mouse-holes are symmetrical!

 

On the lines of the generations of familes and paint preservation, these photos are interesting.  The decendents of the Drayton family used this section of wall as their "measurement" area for their kids.  This section of wall is covered with plexiglass to protect the names and measurements, but also so that the public can see evidence of the people who lived here.

 

The reason some of the measurements are so HIGH on the wall is that decendents of the family visit annually, and some want to have THEIR names on the wall, even though they're grown!  I can't really blame them....the history if amazing.  I'd want to be part of it too!

The last owner of the home, who donated it to the National Trust was a lady named Miss Charlotta.  She never had children, so she decided to measure her dogs, who got their OWN wall section!

 

The name at the top is "Nipper," who has a grave and fancy marker on the plantation.  Apparently he was a bull terrier, and very unlikely that tall.  The historians believe that she probably had him stand on his hind legs so he would be the tallest dog on the wall. 

Another interesting part of the house can be viewed in this picture.  This is the servants' stairs, which wound through the center of the house, with doors opening into most of the main rooms.  The small square hole cut into the wall was the 18th century version of a "cat door."  The cat would access the attic through that hole, where he could catch whatever rodents might have taken up residence.

 

This is the main ballroom on the 2nd floor.  James Fenimore Cooper, among others, were said to have enjoyed many a leisurely evening partying in this room.  This was also the room that probably had the most elaborate ceiling, but it became water damaged after the owners donated the metal (copper maybe?... I can't remember) roof flashing to the Confederate war cause.

 

They boarded the ceiling with beadboard and it was never replastered.

This home, like many of the time, had an above-ground basement.  Sea-level isn't a good spot for an UNDERground basement.  Here's Barngirl in front of a storage area:

 

They also had a bunch of stone columns stored down there.  They think they may be original.

 

I can hardly believe it's so well-preserved.

 

View from the outside of the basement:

 

Boys standing by the river.  "Hurry up and take the picture so we can get back to running!"

 

Not a bad way to spend a school day, don't you agree?