“D” is for Drayton Hall

“D” is for Drayton Hall (Charleston County). Established in 1738, Drayton Hall is a historic plantation located between the Ashley River and Ashley River Road, about nine miles from Charleston. At the time of its construction, its two-story, brick main house with raised basement was representative of current English Georgian architecture. Its recessed, two-story portico—the earliest of its kind in America—probably had no English precedent and was derived directly from Andrea Palladio’s The Four Books of Architecture. Thus, Drayton Hall combined Old World design and eighteenth-century fashion with the tastes of the owner, the abilities of colonial craftspeople, and climate of the lowcounty to create a uniquely American architectural form. In 1974 the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the state of South Carolina, and the Historic Charleston Foundation acquired Drayton Hall from the Drayton family.