Boone Hall

The main house (2015)

Boone Hall is a pre-American Civil War plantation in Mount Pleasant near Charleston in South Carolina , United States . It is listed as a monument on the National Register of Historic Places . The plantation is on the Wampacheeoone River, approximately 10 miles from Old City Charleston and 7 miles from downtown Mount Pleasant. Boone Hall became internationally known in the 1980s as the outdoor set for the television series Torches in the Storm .

history

Boone Hall was first mentioned on September 7, 1681, when Theophilus Patey gave 470 acres of land to Major John Boone, member of the Colony's Grand Council, on the occasion of his wedding to Patey's daughter Elizabeth. Boone acquired more adjacent land along the river. In the 18th century the property was inherited several times within the family. In 1776 the keeping of slaves in Boone Hall is documented for the first time .

In 1811 the plantation with 1452 acres of land was sold to Thomas A. Vardell, who had to cede it to his creditors in 1817 due to indebtedness. They sold it on, in 1837 John Horlbeck was the sole owner. In 1843 he had the drive-up avenue planted with live oaks - the "Avenue of Oaks" that still exists today. In 1850, 85 slaves were registered on the plantation. Horlebeck's heirs were, in the meantime, the leading producers of pecans in the United States.

In 1935 the Horlbeck heirs sold the estate with 4039 acres of land. In 1936, the owners had the massive main house built in colonial style, which is still there today . In 1940, 1945 and 1955 the plantation was sold again.

In 1955 Harris and Nancy McRae acquired the property. They continued the cultivation and focused on growing peaches . They renovated the property, bringing it back largely to its original state and opening it to the public in 1959. In 2007 ownership passed to William H. McRae, who continues to make part of the facility available to the public and who cultivates the other 724 acres.

On July 14, 1983 "Slave Street" with the nine slave huts, the smokehouse and the oak alley were included in the National Register of Historic Buildings. On January 21, 1994 this entry was expanded to include the main house and the park.

In 1985, '86 and '94 Boone Hall was the location of the hit television series Torches in the Storm , in which it served as the exterior of the southern Mont Royal plantation . In 1993 scenes from the miniseries Queen were created here based on a novel by Alex Haley , in 2004 scenes from the film drama Like a Single Day .

investment

The plantation consists of a main house built after the Civil War, a number of original slave huts that were still inhabited by workers until the early 1940s, several plant gardens and the historic "Avenue of Oaks", one more than one Kilometers long driveway to the house with live oaks on both sides.

The oldest surviving building is the smoke tower from 1750. The first slave huts existed around 1790, and the first wooden manor house, which is no longer in existence, dates from this time. Nine slave shelters made of bricks have been preserved. They each have a central fireplace, four windows on the front and one window to the avenue. Today they serve as exhibition rooms for the slavery of that time.

The colonial-style main house, built in 1936 with massive masonry and basement, has a floor space of over 900 m² and has a library, a dining room, a loggia, a playroom, a kitchen on the ground floor, and 7 bedrooms and bathrooms on the upper floor, and two more rooms on the top floor and the attic. Some components of the old main house were taken over into the new building.

Other buildings that have been preserved include two overseer's buildings, a brick tree mill, stables, a machine hall, a historic threshing machine and an office. Today's 724-acre site includes a large portion of the pecan trees from the early twentieth century, although the population was severely affected by a hurricane in 1989.