Charleston, South Carolina is one of Americas favorite vacation destinations; and for good reason. It offers pristine oceanfront beaches and an historical district that would take several days to cover on foot. The famous Market where you can watch local women as they make sweetgrass baskets the same way they have for hundreds of years. For the nautical lovers, there is Patriots Point where you can tour the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier. Or, you can visit the Confederate submarine the Hunley; the first underwater vessel to ever sink another ship. Or take a tour boat out to Fort Sumter where the first shots were fired in the American Civil War.
But the crown jewel of Charleston is located west of the Ashley River in the appropriately named suburb of West Ashley. About 10 miles from downtown Charleston, out Ashley River Road, lays the Middleton Place Plantation.
One of the oldest homesteads in America, the original property was deeded to Jacob Wayte over a hundred years before the American Revolution. The next owners were the Middleton family and this is where the Plantation drew its name. The Middletons were one of the richest and most influential families in the...