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INTERIORSof

vol. 30 no. 1 fall 2012

The summer of 2012 marked the third year that Drayton Hall has participated in a cultural exchange program sponsored by the French Heritage Society. Joining Middleton Place and Magnolia Plantation and Gardens as a host site, Drayton Hall has provided internship opportunities for landscape architecture students from the prestigious French National School of Landscape Architecture, the L’Ecole Nationale Superieure du Paysage Versaille or ENSP.

This year’s intern, Margarita Dominique Valencia, focused her attention on conceptual planning for the terraced portion of Drayton Hall’s gardens that are adjacent to

the river. The Landscape Master Plan (2004), prepared for Drayton Hall by landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh and Sheila Wertimer, suggests treatment to this part of the landscape after removing invasive vegetation and relocating the picnic area.

Dr. Carter C. Hudgins, director of education and preservation at Drayton Hall, says, “The recent rediscovery of Drayton Hall’s 18th-century terraces adds to a growing understanding of the organized nature of Drayton Hall’s extensive gardens. Shaped through human labor and accentuated with both local and imported plantings, the terraces were one of many features designed to please the

by eric becker, manager of landscapes, horticulture, and modern facilities

Fr ench heritage Society inter n helpS complete lateSt phaSe of hiStoric landScape project

We hope you all enjoyed this year’s first-ever Annual Report sent to you in August – we appreciate the many positive comments and look forward to

producing future editions.

By the time you receive this, we’ll be busy at work on the year-end issue of In-teriors; in the meantime we wanted to be sure you received the latest update on a recent step forward toward real-izing another chapter of our Landscape Master Plan. While the comprehensive Master Plan itself was funded through a generous donation by Gail and Parker Gilbert, the projects that have been implemented over the years to fulfill the Plan’s vision are made possible by members like you. Thank you.

George W. McDaniel

3380 Ashley River Road, Charleston SC 29414Phone: 843-769-2600 Fax: 843-766-0878www.draytonhall.org dhmail@draytonhall.org

senses and broadcast the Drayton connection to intellectual pursuits in botany and landscape design.” Margarita’s work will not only help to redefine the elaborate terraces, but will give such features prominence through the establishment of a planting plan that, once implemented, will return both native and historic flowering plants to one of early America’s most significant estates.

The goal of Ms. Valencia’s two-week summer project was to prepare a conceptual landscape overlay plan for adding plantings that would make the area more asthetically pleasing, increase interpretive opportunities, and minimize the impact on the physical landscape.

DRAyToN HALL SITE CouNCILAnthony Wood, chairmanElizabeth Alston, Mary Ravenel Black, Lonnie Bunch, Mimi Cathcart, Edward Crawford, Elise Davis-McFarland, Jane deButts (emerita), Chad Drayton, Charles Drayton (emeritus), Frank Drayton, W. Eric Emerson, Carl Gable, Phil Gaines, Stephen F. Gates, Marilynn Hill, Douglas Lee, Benjamin Lenhardt, Sandy Logan, Peter McGee (emeritus), Hampton Morris, Monty osteen, Duane Parrish, Suzanne Pollak, Michael Prevost, Connie Wyrick (emerita)

ExECuTIVE DIRECToRGeorge W. McDaniel

INTERIoRS STAFFKristine Morris, editorNatalie Baker, graphic designerEmily C. Pack, associate editorRobert A. Johnson, volunteer proofreader

The mission of Drayton Hall, a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is to preserve and interpret Drayton Hall and its environs, in order to educate and inspire people to embrace historic preservation.

George W. McDaniel, Ph.D.

Since 1985, the French Heritage Society has sponsored this program for American and French college students to develop cultural exchanges in the field of historic preservation. Students benefit from hands-on practical experience in each other’s countries. To read more about the Society and the scope of the Drayton Hall project, please visit these websites: www.frenchheritagesociety.org or draytonhall.wordpress.com.

front cover: Conceptual watercolor of terraced area by Margarita Valencia 2012 2

L-R: Eric Becker andMargarita Valencia

above center and lower right: Excerpts from Margarita’s Landscape Overlay Plan

Please consider gift memberships to the Friends of Drayton Hall/National Trust for the history buffs, travelers, and budding preservationists on your list. To purchase, contact Leslie Newman at (843) 769.2612 or leslie_newman@draytonhall.org. Purchase by December 15, and Drayton Hall will notify your recipients of your gift by December 25.

by leslie newman, membership coordinator

I have a question for you. What do eighteenth-century Lowcountry planter John

Drayton, nineteenth-century American author Louisa May Alcott, and king of rock-and-roll Elvis Presley have in common? All three owned homes that today are connected to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Drayton Hall is one of 27 National Trust historic sites, and the Trust’s extensive list of Partner Places include Elvis’s Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, and Louisa May Alcott’s orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, where Alcott wrote Little Women. These are just three out of hundreds of sites across America to which those who hold a joint membership in the Friends of Drayton Hall and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are routinely greeted as friends and given privileged, discounted access.

of course, with a joint membership in the Friends of Drayton Hall and the National Trust, you can visit Drayton Hall for free—and bring up to four guests along with you—as many times as you like throughout the year. If a couple with a joint membership were to visit Drayton Hall only four times a year with a full complement of adult guests, they would be receiving a $432 value from their membership. While that is an exceptional value, it doesn’t include the potential extra value from free or reduced admission to the other 26 National Trust Historic Sites, discounts at over 200 National Trust Partner Places (like Graceland and the orchard House), and discounts at more than 200 hotels of historic or architectural significance that participate in the Trust’s Historic Hotels of America program.

Finally, the benefits of a joint membership include a 10% discount in Drayton Hall’s museum shop, and subscriptions to Drayton Hall’s newsletter Interiors and the National Trust’s Preservation magazine. over the course of a year, you could easily translate a $45 joint membership into $1,000 or more in value.

For the 6,879 individuals, families, and one dog (Ko Ko Grams, a long-haired dachshund in Middletown, Maryland) who are our members, the benefits of membership are many. But Drayton Hall derives important benefits too.

If you paged through Drayton Hall’s 2011 Annual Report, you may remember that the total amount Drayton Hall received from membership dues last year was substantial. In fact, membership dues accounted for $314,620 or 45.1% of all charitable support for Drayton Hall. This support is indispensable to Drayton Hall’s mission of preservation and education. Membership dollars have supported our work with engineers to assess and make plans to halt the deterioration of the main house’s signature portico. They have enabled us to re-point masonry on the main house and privy. And they have made it possible to attend to the health of Drayton Hall’s centuries-old live oak trees and plant new trees in accordance with Drayton Hall’s Landscape Master Plan.

Membership dues also support Drayton Hall’s exciting, interactive education programs that in 2011 introduced over 10,000 students to the history, diverse culture, and natural environment of Drayton Hall, the Ashley River region, and the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Membership is very, very important to Drayton Hall. If you have been a member for a long time, we salute you with sincere gratitude for providing reliable encouragement and generous support. If you are a new member, we welcome you into our preservation community, look forward to building a special relationship with you, and hope to receive your renewal when your membership anniversary rolls around. If your membership has lapsed, we urge you to renew it and rejoin the Friends of Drayton Hall as we move with purpose into an exciting future.

For a full listing of National Trust Historic Sites, Partner Places, and Historic Hotels of America, visit www.preservationnation.org and enter “Historic Sites,” “Partner Places,” or “Historic Hotels of America.” 3

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FRIENDS of DRAyToN HALL CELEBRATED 30 yEARS with TEA & JAZZ

Sunday afternoon, May 6, offered gorgeous weather for a gathering of nearly 200 members of Drayton Hall and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, along with their family members and guests, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the organizing of the Friends of Drayton Hall.

As the sounds of jazz by a quartet of musicians from Charleston County’s School of the Arts under the direction of Ken Foberg rolled across the lawn, Friends hailing from every part of the Lowcountry and as far away as Illinois refreshed themselves with iced tea or something stronger, sampled hors d’oeuvres, and made trips to the ice cream bar.

An exhibit from Drayton Hall’s Historic Collections was a highlight, supplemented by a Drayton telescope circa 1760 and a pair of Drayton pistols, both on loan from members of the Drayton family. Executive Director Dr. George W. McDaniel expressed appreciation for the invaluable encouragement and charitable support Drayton Hall receives each year from members and friends.

L-R: Charles and Susan Waring, Anne Drayton Nelson, George McDaniel; foreground: Charles Henry “Charlie” Drayton, III