Elizabeth Drayton Taylor, Drayton Hall descendant and mother of the author.

For as long as I can remember, my mother, Elizabeth Drayton Taylor, has spoken about the love that her father and she felt for Drayton Hall. Indeed, I was always told that my grandfather died in his sleep in 1960 the night he returned from a last trip with Mother to Charleston and Drayton Hall. That is why it is so fitting that there should be a bench at Drayton Hall, facing the river, commemorating the love of both my mother and grandfather for the home built by their ancestor.

Charles deVere Drayton was born in Aiken, SC in 1882 and moved up to Washington  D.C. with his family as a child. There he practiced law, working for the Southern Railroad, and was an involved civic leader. He married Irma Biscoe Eliason and had three children—Charles, Elizabeth, and Dorothea.

Charles deVere Drayton, grandfather of the author.

My mother, Elizabeth Drayton Taylor, was born in DC, and lives there still. Before marrying, she was a fashion model, a researcher for Time Magazine and, during the war, an analyst for OSS.  Later, during a 14-year interlude in Denver, Colorado, she raised three children:  John Drayton Rea, Malcolm Dunbar Rea and me, Alison Bruce Rea.  In Denver, she also was active in politics—serving for many years as a Democratic district captain training several future Colorado governors and lobbying in some of the most progressive mental health laws and facilities in the country. She has one grandchild, Nicholas Edwards, who also currently lives in DC and is a filmmaker.

Charles Elliott Rowand Drayton, great grandfather of the author.

So, the question is, how are we related to John Drayton, the builder of Drayton Hall?  We are descended from his oldest son, William Henry Drayton (m Charlotta Bull). Our line then went through their son, Governor John Drayton (m Hester Rose Tidyman), their son Alfred Rose Drayton (m Martha Rowand Summers), and their son, Charles Elliott Rowand Drayton (m Jessie Elvira Mackay), who was my grandfather’s father.

Interested in the memorial bench program at Drayton Hall? Please contact our Development Assistant Leslie Newman, at leslie_newman@draytonhall.org or give her a call at 843-769-2600. 

Dr. George W. McDaniel, executive director of Drayton Hall

Although our Executive Director, Dr. George McDaniel, has spent the majority of his career at Drayton Hall, he is the first to tell people that at heart, he’s always been an educator. After college and the Peace Corps, Dr. McDaniel got his first teaching job at his alma mater in Atlanta, The Lovett School. His time there spent teaching young students cemented in him a desire to engage them in topics like art, culture, and most importantly, history. Fast forward a few decades, and that motivation is still just as strong as ever. But over the past few years, Dr. McDaniel had started to notice a troubling trend among students and people of all ages who come to visit Drayton Hall. If you know George, then you’ll know that he couldn’t just observe something that caused him concern and not take some sort of action. He began to talk to friends and colleagues in the fields of history, art, and antiques, and those conversations spurred him to write the article that was featured in the Winter 2013 issue of Fine Art and Antiques Magazine: “America’s Historical Illiteracy and the Future of Art and Antiques.” We hope you enjoy the article, but most importantly, note the things that we all can do to engage our students and teachers so that this trend is reversed.

Click here to read the entire article on Issuu.

Drayton Hall’s multi-talented project assistant Joseph Mester has written an excellent piece in the Charleston Gateway visitor guide about Drayton Hall’s African American Cemetery. The article describes the beginnings of Drayton Hall and the origin of the site’s cemetery, which we refer to as a “Sacred Space.” Enjoy!

http://issuu.com/strandmedia/docs/apr13-gateway?mode=window

Children at the Drayton Hall table experiment with pluff mud drawings.

Amid the spring blossoms and excited visitors, Drayton Hall’s education programs were on full display at the 2013 National Garden Day Exposition held at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. We set up a table to exhibit pictures, brochures, and educational activities beginning at 9:00 and lasting until about 2:00. With Drayton Hall’s participation, nearly 200 children created leaf rubbings and pluff mud paintings, two of the activities from our Marsh Madness program. We interacted with students enjoying a school field trip, homeschoolers with their parents, and even tourists that just happened to be visiting Magnolia on Garden Day!

Drayton Hall celebrates National Public Gardens Day!

Pluff mud finger-painting was by far the favorite activity, giving children a chance to dig their finger into a jar of the local marsh material, designing a painted masterpiece of their own. Many children excitedly told us how much fun it was to play with mud, something that was usually off-limits for them! Nearly all of the teachers and parents we spoke with knew very little about Drayton Hall’s educational programs, and eagerly wanted to learn about our standards-based curriculum. By talking to both the children and adults, the exposition provided Drayton Hall an incredible opportunity for education, outreach, and fun for all who visited Magnolia on National Garden Day!

Author: Tara White

Tara is an educator and interpreter at Drayton Hall where she leads public tours and educational school programs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and art from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition to educating visitors at Drayton Hall, she is a teaching artist at the Gibbes Museum of Art. 

This Vision Plan shows a sustainable path for growth over the next 30 years.
Click to enlarge.

While Our Region Our Plan is not a mandate, it offers a working guide for decisions about roads and development that will inevitably be made in order to accommodate the estimated 200,000 people moving to the tri-county area by 2040. Towns, cities, and counties now will have a more integrated picture of their role in the quality of life and economic vitality of the entire region. Decisions about roads and developments in Hollywood affect the residents of West Ashley, and decisions made in the downtown corridor affect residents living all around the peninsula.  Most importantly, this Plan prompts the different municipalities and regions to cooperate with each other. A total of five jurisdictions have the power to determine how the land and water around Drayton Hall are managed, so we especially value cross-jurisdictional cooperation when it comes to addressing issues that impact our historic resources.

ABOVE:  Drayton Hall Executive Director George McDaniel, (far left), and Director of Preservation and Education Carter Hudgins (third from left) attend a regional planning workshop.

Thankfully, Our Region Our Plan also draws from other successful models in the country to demonstrate that we can keep our rural areas rural while growing dense urban centers. By using forward thinking zoning policies that preserve the characteristics that we all cherish in our rural lowcountry areas, we can preserve our irreplaceable landscapes. Up-and-coming sustainable developments, like nearby East Edisto, exemplify the kind of settlement patterns that will keep our beloved historic district what it is, so future generations can enjoy it.

So what will keep this Plan from just collecting dust on the shelf? The chair of Our Region Our Plan, Councilman Larry Hargett, kept the answer simple. “You and I and our elected leaders will determine this. COG is just here as a reminder.”  The political will of citizens has to be a driving force behind the way that our streets, communities and highways are constructed. We have a powerful voice and we have to use it.  For this reason, Drayton Hall has continued to stay involved in grassroots planning efforts over the years in order to voice support for opportunities to enhance the rural character of the district, such as establishing public parks at Ashley River Road’s northern gateway in Dorchester County.

As is evident in many areas throughout the country, badly planned development destroys the quality of the places where people live, work, and play. The decisions that control this type of growth happen in planning commission and council meetings. We know from this plan that it is possible to preserve our local resources and accommodate for the increases in jobs, housing, and other infrastructure that the area will require.  Our Region Our Plan can now be used by citizens to advise our officials in taking advantage of this varied set of solutions for guiding development and investment.

 Want to help Drayton Hall in our efforts to preserve this beautiful place? Become a Friend of Drayton Hall, or contact our Conservation Coordinator Eugenia Payne at eugenia_payne@draytonhall.org. Your voice matters! 

Bob arrived to start his bird watching at 8:00am, armed with his binoculars and a guide. Although
the weather didn’t cooperate, Bob was pleased to see so many different species of birds in so many different habitats. He explained to us that the beauty of bird watching at Drayton Hall is in the number of different habitats in such a compact space. In the swamp areas he saw yellow warblers, who like the big pines along the border of the swamp. The other habitats, like the lawn area, pond and forest, also yielded other wonderful species. Bob was lucky enough to spot a great horned owl, which he says you usually only see near dawn and dusk. He also told us he has never seen as many Flickers grouped together like he saw during his expedition!  Unfortunately, the wind picked up fairly quickly and the bird activity dropped – luckily, Bob was so pleased with his visit that he’s going to come again later in the spring to try to spot even more species. His advice to would-be birders is simple and straight to the point. If you want to start bird watching, head out to Drayton Hall early in the day — all you need to bring with you are binoculars, a bird guide, and lots of patience!

Five One-of-a Kind Historic Places to Visit This Spring Break.

http://blog.preservationnation.org/2013/02/13/giving-gullahgeechee-culture-a-home-at-the-little-house/#.USzSl6JUW7x

For one week a year, Drayton Hall closes its doors to visitors so that we can complete a top-to-bottom cleaning of the inside of the house, make any large-scale repairs, and take care of other maintenance that is difficult to do when visitors are on the site.  This year, we trimmed up trees along the driveway and throughout the grounds, cleaned windows, walls and floors inside, painted the bathrooms, cleared brush at the African-American cemetery, and made great progress on repairs to the historic mortarwork of the main house.   Take a closer look here.

Visitor Services Manager Kate Ruhf explains more in this video on YouTube.

Matt Webster, Director of Preservation, also describes how the historic mortarwork is repaired in this YouTube video. 

I love fall at Drayton Hall. The days are sunny, the humidity is gone, and children are everywhere! Our fall education season had 4,450 students, teachers, and chaperones dotting our landscape as they participated in a variety of our education programs. From investigating an 18^th century building to colonial cooking and camp life for soldiers, our young historians learned about the role of Drayton Hall in American history and how that history connects to their own lives.

Fourth grade students at the camp life station of The American Revolution program.

Nearly 3,000 of our students were fourth graders from Charleston County schools. Each of these fourth grade students participated in pre- and post- program testing to measure their growth in content knowledge in topics such as colonial life and the American Revolution. We are pleased to report a nearly 20% increase in the post-program test scores over the pre-program test scores. We are very proud of our local fourth graders and all of our visiting students who understand the importance of history and serve as wonderful ambassadors for Drayton Hall.

Middle school students investigating an 18th century building.

Two of our fall season participates had this to say:

“This place is really great! You can learn all about social studies here.” –Jackson, fourth grader from JB Edwards in Mt. Pleasant 

“I was one of the 4th grade teachers who had the privilege of joining our students on this trip (The American Revolution: War Comes to Drayton Hall). Thank you again for an outstanding learning experience outside of the classroom. The kids really enjoyed it. Thanks again for everything and the great comments you made about our kids.”

Laura Ann Shaw, BS Ed.
Fourth Grade Team
Charleston Progressive Academy

A small sample of four Drayton Hall educators represent four Bachelor Degrees, three Master’s Degrees, and fluency in seven languages! From L to R: Phoebe Willis, Betsy McAmis, Eric Snyder, and Leslie Newman.