Middleton Place

Not a bad trip, but at $ 15/​person for the house tour (children cost the same as adults) I expected the people to be a bit more knowledgable of the few artifacts in the house. Our guide only knew about the very few items keyed for the tour. Also didn’t speak much about the family. Compared to the Nathaniel Russell House, where the guide could answer everything in detail, felt very lacking. Many plugs for purchasing merchandise.
Also, the «Beyond the Fields» tour spent a lot of time talking about how slavery wasn’t that bad instead of discussing anything of importance. Guide was also not very knowledgable about material, stumbling plenty of times during the presentation with comments of «needing to check notes» but never actually checking.
The friendliest and most helpful person in the whole place was Ms. W at the entrance to the house. Gave us great information on how time the tours.
Beautiful gardens if in bloom. Definitely worth seeing for that.

Beautiful and historical part of Charleston. Built on the backs of many slaves, but maintained to modern day standards of timeless beauty. Set on the banks of the Ashley River, worth a drive from downtown up 61.

What a great place to spend the day in Charleston!
Only a 20 – 30 minute drive from the historic downtown, and it’s true what they say on their websites and the brochure — you can really spend hours here!
It IS a bit pricey, so I didn’t pay for the house tour, but really the grounds are what make Middleton Place spectacular!
I went on a pretty gray weekday, so it was pretty much me and a few other people! And I wandered around the grounds for 2 hours or so. Gorgeous gardens and forested areas! Every time I thought I had reached the end of a path, it would lead somewhere different and beautiful!
Don’t miss the stables and animal area, where you can make friends with horses, pigs, water buffalo. And you can walk through the herd of sheep that graze on the front lawn of the house!
They have a gift shop, garden shop, and a restaurant on the property as well. The restaurant has a beautiful view and a-​okay food!
I couldn’t be more glad that I spent an entire morning wandering around Middleton Place! And I’d love to go back next time I’m in Charleston!

An educational and interesting way to spend a day exploring the various aspects of Lowcountry history. Lots of historical plaques and displays, heritage breed animals, craftsmen/​women and beautiful scenery to see. We went on Thanksgiving and covered a large portion of the trails. We didn’t do the house tour – we spent so much time walking the grounds and then enjoying dinner, then walking the grounds again we didn’t get to it. We’ll be back.
Very well informed staff and guides was an additional plus. As a history educator/​writer living in the Lowcountry I would rank the historical content and communication of the plantation’s history as good. The plaques and signs do discuss the conditions of slavery and the massive amounts and types of work that slaves performed. In the chapel-​spring house the historical displays convey the nuanced ways that slaves related to Christianity and practiced it. The displays also discussed the ways in which slaveowners used Christianity as a means of controlling their slaves – and the difficulty of assessing the question of what extent that was true because of the lack of archival sources.
We did not visit the house – that’ll happen on another visit so I don’t know how enslavement and the owners of the plantation are discussed inside. I would say that there is room for improvement in discussing exact living conditions of slaves, punishments, and general quality of life of both slaves and the white owners/​overseers. Brookgreen Gardens in Murrell’s Inlet, SC, about 90 minutes up the coast from Charleston has a more detailed description of slave life, living quarters, and the cruelty of the plantation economy in a similarly important historic setting.

Really beautiful plantation and gardens on Ashley River with plenty to do. Make sure to go early and plan to spend the day and open your wallet or wait it out until you have the time and money. You will get so much more out of it if you do. Must do’s: carriage ride (extra), house tour (extra), chapel, gardens, Eliza’s house, and at least walk the livestock. There is also a tour to learn more about them, but if you do the carriage ride you will get an overview of everything’s importance.

Dark, interesting, and amazing grounds. Clearly the tours wont tell you everything that went on here. But its not a bad way to spend the day

I came to South Carolina just to visit plantations and learn about slavery, I find it fascinating. I visited four plantations, Boon, Magnolia, Drayton, and Middleton. I would rank them 1) Boon 2) Middleton 3) Drayton and last Magnolia.
Middleton is breathtakingly beautiful. It is awe inspiring. I enjoyed the Slavery to Freedom tour. It was about two hours long and full of information. The gardens were amazing. I wish I would have skipped Magnolia so I could of had more time to spend here. If I ever come back to this area again I will come back here because in two and half hours I did not see everything I wanted to see. Do not miss this place.
It is expensive. It is $ 28 to get in and then every tour is an additional $. The day pass is around $ 47. If I came back I would buy the day pass and plan on spending at least 5 hours here.

We chose to visit Middleton Plantation for its history and beauty. We were expecting to learn about life in the South on a plantation especially for slaves. However, the whole visit was about the gardens and the Middleton family. Although the gardens were beautiful and the family/​house tour informative, there was very little information about slavery. In fact, the only information was hidden in a poorly labeled, small shed with one small room. The information lacked description on how the slaves were treated and their daily lives, which was disappointing considering the large roles they played in plantation life. Considering all this, admission was overpriced and we probably would have chosen another plantation if we had known the price vs information ratio.

Not to sound like an echo chamber here, but I think the reviews here are spot on:
— Gorgeous grounds
— Amazing views
— Underwhelming house tour
— Expensive admission
— Totally glossing over of slavery

Breathtaking! Spectacular! Amazing! I can’t find more beautiful words to describe this place. Nature is unbelievable. I felt I’m in fairy tail. If you love nature, beautiful gardens and history, I highly recommend. Wanna live in place like that. My sweet dreams :)

Beautiful grounds and regretfully very little is left of the original plantation. Not only the ravages and destruction from the American Civil War, but the earthquake of 1881 literally knocked the stuffing out of the reconstruction efforts as well as the motivation of the survivors.
Fortunately, museums, antique dealers and extended family have been regularly returning furniture, art, silver and items that had been there at Middleton Place. One of the three original plantation houses has been restored, but the other two are simply ruins.
But the grounds are spectacular and the docent-​led tour of the existing house is excellent. It is easy to imagine the luxury of those riverside plantations with crews of slaves working the rice fields, tending to maintenance chores and caring for the owners and their families.
It was a rainy day for us so we could not spend a lot of time outside. The house carriage tour started out OK with the exception that the female guide had such a soft voice that we only could make out a few words from each statement and as she kept turning to face forward, we heard nothing. We finally gave up as he rain pounding on umbrellas totally obliterated her voice and we asked to be left off at the house.
After the house tour we retreated on foot across the fields to the gift shop for coffee and left.
It was a very expensive experience. Two spend the day admissions were $ 48, plus the carriage tour for two was $ 32 and the house tour for two was $ 30. So for $ 110 we only really got the house tour and a wet, limited look at the grounds. We passed on the restaurant, which would have been extra.
Best to go on a nice sunny day for $ 110.

So 5 stars for atmosphere, but I am docking this place by a star for how they capitalize on this historic landmark by constantly up charging you. $ 28 just to tour the grounds and an extra $ 15 to see the house — which, by the way, is not the original house. The original house (spoiler alert!) burnt down after the Civil War, so you view one of the «anchor» houses that contain the original belongings of the Middleton family over the generations.
I give this 4 stars for the grounds, which are GORGEOUS and the informative tour guides, who did provide a lot of detail regarding the landscaping and the reasons behind it. You discover some pretty remarkable things about the property thanks to the guided nature tours (highly recommend these and they’re the only thing included in your admission!) and there are actually some «firsts» associated with Middleton that I was surprised to find out. Dedicate a day to this activity, by the way — it took 4 hours just to walk around the exterior and we were exhausted by the end of it. If you plan on doing more than one plantation in a day, GO EARLY!
Especially compelling is Eliza’s house — the interior of the house lists every one of Middleton’s 800+ slaves and what they were sold for. A sobering realization of how prominent slavery was in this area. Was somewhat annoyed at the «but he was a good slave master» rhetoric everywhere — yeah people, the point is HE WAS A SLAVE MASTER. Sure, he didn’t break up families, but I’m not going to give the guy a medal for his generosity, such as it was. End of the day– he bought people and didn’t pay them anything and thus, it made him rich off of his rice crops. So yeah… it does mar the beauty you see around you. It’s lovely to roam the French gardens and bask in the scent of magnolias and look in awe at the ancient oaks, which are 700+ years old — but then you realize that the land was cultivated through the blood, sweat and tears of people who were enslaved to work the land, and it is hard to reconcile those two things. Granted, taking a moment to think about the blights of the past is always something we should take time to do, in honor of those who suffered through it.

My husband and I toured the gardens at Middleton Place. We opted out of the other tours. The gardens are extensive to say the least. They span many acres and are very manicured and beautiful. Tons of different varieties of azaleas are all of the gardens among other flowers. Live oaks with moss surround the gardens as well. They give you a map with descriptions of what you are seeing. There are farm animals and if you’re lucky, maybe a sheep will follow you around like one did with my husband and I! We spent an hour and a half walking around the gardens and could have spent more time. If you do all the tours, you could spend an entire day here.

Grounds: perfection!
Restaurant: Middleton Place Restaurant has wonderful views, excellent food, and great service. Their food is usually local and high quality, and the chefs certainly know what they are doing.

This review is for the restaurant. I will avoid commentary on the historical aspects, since my wife and I were just there for the gardens and did not do any tours. Although on that note, the gardens are beautiful if not expensive.
I’m shocked to be saying this, but $ 25 buffet was totally worth it. First, there is not much food otherwise in the nearby area. Second the only alternative is a little deli sandwiches out front, which are not worth it. Third the food was delicious. Fried chicken, pulled pork, green bean casserole, cream corn, etc. all first-​rate, especially the meats.
if you can swing the price, do it. If you cannot, bring some snacks.

Came with husband for romantic dinner for Valentine’s Day. LOL!!! What a joke. Service was lousy. Waited for an hour for our entrees. When food came out finally. It was cold. Would we ever come back here!!! NO… NEVER!!!

Fantastic gardens and tour guides! Even on a January weekend, grounds were meticulously maintained and really beautiful. This landmark is a focus for the grounds — not as much the house since the original main house was burned.
We did not do the house tour, the carriage ride or eat at the restaurant. However, we did two of the tours included in admission which were both fantastic. One covered the Hosford and design of the gardens themselves and the other the history of the plantation and «typical» life at the time. The guides are generally volunteers with a few full time staff. Found them to be very knowledgeable and engaging. More than happy to answer questions and provide alternative points of view.
We spent at least 2 hours there (easily could have spent another hour) so I would plan on 3 – 4 hours for the basics and to enjoy the grounds. Additional time with a carriage tour, house tour or dining.

Was it picturesque? Sure. Was the food at the restaurant good? Sure.
But from a historicaly standpoint… i swear. It’s like they took a room of Charleston’s greatest historians, sat them around a table and said «okay guys, we need to come up with the information for our tourguides. what’s the most pedantic stuff you’ve got?».
The point to which the completely ignored any of the atrocities that happened on that plantation almost seemed like apologism to me. at the very least, there was certainly denialism. They tried to make it sound like these guys fell on hard times after the war in a way where we should be sympathetic to these «poor plantation owners who had their home burned down» (they had all run away days before and brought their valuables with them.
DUDE. THEY RUINED THE LIVES OF COUNTLESS PEOPLE. THEY KILLED/​MAMED COUNTLESS PEOPLE. Literally, countless. Try asking the tour guide how many slaves worked on the plantation — no one could tell us. Try asking about anything socio-​political regarding the family or the ethics of the reconstruction period — they will tell you «great question but i have no idea!». But by golly, if you want to look at some bracelet some racist lady wore 200 years ago, are you in luck!!!
The whole thing felt kind of like they were nostalgic for the «good ol’ days» and to be honest, it creeped me out. So at best, the place was aggressively and ambitiously pedantic, at worst, it was kinda creepy. I wouldn’t recommend it if you actually want a view of history.

Thanksgiving day brunch and a stroll around the gardens. The price was significant (60 $ per person, no drinks included other than coffee/​tea), lets start there. If I’m paying a fair amount to have a very nice brunch, I get a liiiiiiittle aggravated when I’m told to be at the tent for my reservation 5 minutes early, and then have to wait in line for 15 minutes before anyone is even let in… for the FIRST seating! If you can’t get your act together on a holiday for the first seating, thats not a good sign. Also, there were fires burning next to the line so you had a constant stream of smoke in your face. Now everyone in my party has to dry clean their nice jackets because we smell like a campfire.
Next, the waitstaff appeared to have never had serving experience before. I watched various employees spilling things, confused about how to take orders… we ordered a bottle of wine and i watched someone start pouring it, then our waitress told that person to stop, then she proceeded to bring over the bottle with 5 wineglasses, and one that already had some red wine in it. No explanation. If I hadn’t seen what happened across the room that would have been very strange…
Let me also make clear that it was NOT extremely packed and there were a ton of servers so it’s not like everyone was just overwhelmed.
Third on my list of complaints, no bloody mary mix? Bizarre for a brunch…
Now that the complaining is out of the way, I will say that the food was EXCELLENT. Ham and turkey were so delicious. I would love to eat that whole meal again. The grounds were also gorgeous, it was so nice to walk around. It would absolutely be worth the 60 $ if they were actually able to get it together for the function — it’s too bad starting off the day like that tarnishes the experience overall.
EDIT: I feel like I may be over reacting. I want to say again that the buffet was really perfect, no waiting in a weird buffet line, everything hot and fresh… so that part was together.

There’s no denying that Middleton Place is absolutely gorgeous. There’s also no denying, however, that the price of admission is absolutely outrageous. $ 28 just to access the gardens and plantation stableyards?! Luckily, I am still eligible for the student discount — $ 15 — which, when you consider what you’re actually getting for that price, is still nothing to sneeze at.
I understand that Middleton Place needs funding in order to maintain the grounds, but at least include a tour of the House Museum in the general admission costs. This is the reason why I’m knocking one star off of my rating.
Now, to my experience of the landmark itself. As soon as I stepped through the entrance to the gardens, I was surrounded by color. With vibrant green grass and flowers in bloom, the grounds transported me back to the 1700s. There are so many picturesque moments, and I envisioned so many hidden areas where I could just sit with a good book and relax for hours.
I’ll admit — the beautiful, sunny day heightened the quality of my visit. The seemingly never ending walking trail, with its unexpected twists and turns, generated a fun, exploratory element to my sightseeing. Of course, most of the paths were established far before Middleton Place became a national historic site. Still, this is a place to which I can certainly see myself returning. I just wish that reliving these scenic views wouldn’t cost me $ 28 in the future.