Middleton Place

Enrichment opportunities included in Middleton Place gate admission

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Middleton Place staff continues to develop new ideas as well as re-examine existing programs to enhance the visitor experience. The exciting new and expanded tours and activities begin this Spring.

First and foremost, the African American Focus Tour, which explores the life and work of the enslaved people who were at Middleton Place in the 18th and 19th centuries, has been re-named the “Beyond the Fields Walking Tour.” The name was changed to better reflect the information on the tour and its companion history book and study exhibit permanently mounted in the eastern section of Eliza’s House. The Beyond the Fields Walking Tour is among a growing list of activities included in general admission. The tour is currently offered three times daily, at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., starting at Eliza’s House.

Several new programs have also been added in the Plantation Stableyards. The the “Meet the Breeds” tour is a 30-minute guided walk in the Middleton Place Plantation Stableyards. It provides visitors a better understanding of the animals in the Stableyards and their historical significance as it applies to Middleton Place and the Low Country. Heritage breeds, including, Cashmere goats, Guinea hogs, Gulf Coast sheep, Dominique chickens, Guinea fowl, and water buffalo, represent the animals that were here centuries ago according to the Middleton Place Agricultural Censuses of 1850 / 1860 and various letters, inventories, and documents found in the Middleton Place archives. The tour should not be missed by anyone interested in plantations of an 18th and 19th century. It is also included in general admission and given daily at 12:30 p.m. in the Stableyards.

In addition to Meet the Breeds, other daily activities recently added in the Plantation Stableyards include candle-making and the artifacts table. Volunteers demonstrate the craft of candle-making using both bees wax and tallow and the artifact table allows visitors a “hands-on” experience inviting them to handle plantation artifacts and identify what they are and how they would have been used. Candle-making and the artifact table are available to the public daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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