Brookgreen Plantation – Murrells Inlet – Georgetown County

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(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Waccamaw River, Murrells Inlet, All Saints Waccamaw Parish, Georgetown County

  Located off US 17 between Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – ?

• Current status – Part of Brookgreen Gardens
  

Timeline

• Circa 1760 – Earliest known date of existence (1, p. 3)
  

  William Allston developed a rice plantation along the banks of the Waccamaw River (1, p. 3).
  

• Mid 1700s – House built by William Allston (1, p. 2)
  

• 1825 – Joshua John Ward acquired all or part of the Brookgreen Plantation land (1, p. 2).
  

• After 1865 – The plantation was sold to Dr. Louis C. Hassell sometime after the Civil War (1, p. 6).
  

• ? – Dr. Hassell's brother-in-law and wife become owners of Brookgreen (1, p. 6).
  

• 1930 – Archer Milton Huntington purchased the plantation from Dr. Hassell's brother-in-law and wife (1, p. 6).
  

  Archer and his wife Anna Hyatt Huntington developed the property into gardens and sculpture museum. Learn more about their love story here.

• ? – Brookgreen Gardens, a Society for Southeastern Flora and Fauna became owners of the property (1, p. 2)
  

Land

• Number of acres – 4,500 in 1978

• Primary crop – Rice

• Brookgreen Gardens consists of 4,500 acres which once were part of four seperate plantations, Brookgreen Plantation, Laurel Hill Plantation, Oaks Plantation, and Springfield Plantation. None of the houses are still standing.
  

  The Alston family cemetery, once part of Oak Plantation, remains on the Brookgreen Gardens' property (1, p. 2).
  

Owners

• Alphabetical list – William Allston (Circa 1760-?); Brookgreen Gardens, a Society for Southeastern Flora and Fauna (?-present); England (?); Flagg (?); Dr. Louis C. Hassell (Circa 1865-?); Archer Milton Huntington (1930-?); Mood (?); Joshua John Ward (1825-?); Withers (?)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 1,121 in 1860, this was the total number of slaves of the estate of Joshua John Ward (6, p. 19)

Buildings

• The house no longer exists. The sculputure gardens now sit on the old homesite (1, p. 2)
  

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1978
   – Photographs, overview
   

2. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society

3. Sharon A. Carlisle, George Washington's Guide to the Waccamaw Neck and Georgetown (Rice Told Tales) (Self published: 2004)
   
   

4. George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina (Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company, 1990)
    Order The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina

5. Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001)
    Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River

6. Charles Joyner, Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community, Anniversary Edition (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009)
   
   

Contact Information

• Brookgreen Gardens
  P.O. Box 3368
  Pawleys Island, SC 29585
  

  Telephone: 800-849-1931
  Website: Click here