On Plantation Row along the Ashley River west of Charleston are three magnificant properties, with Drayton Hall and Middleton Place flanking Magnolia Plantation. All three have stories to tell, featuring large in both local and US history. Drayton Hall was built in 1738 by John Drayton (c.1715–1779) — the great-grandson of Thomas Drayton Jr., who founded Magnolia Plantation in 1676. Although John […]
Ima Hogg, despite her unfortunate name, stands among the greatest patrons of American art. Her philanthropic legacy is broad and varied, but Bayou Bay — her home, gardens, and American decorative arts collection — is perhaps the most tangible. […]
In the early 1920s, philanthropist Mildred Bliss and landscape designer Beatrix Farrand began to create an extensive garden at the Bliss’ Washington DC estate. Collaborating for almost thirty years, the two planned every garden detail, each terrace, bench, urn, and border. Now open to the pubic, the garden is perhaps the last remaining landscape in North America that hews closely to the original Farrand design. In 2014 it was singled out by National Geographic as one of the ten best gardens in the world. […]
I wonder how you score a Duke University dorm room overlooking the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. This is the view the lucky students who reside in those rooms see below their windows — and what we saw up-close on a recent visit. Sarah P. Duke Gardens consists of 55 acres of landscaped and wooded areas […]
I’ve been wanting to visit Reynolda House and its American art collection since I first learned about it 25 years ago. Finally made it! Set at the center of 180 acres in Winston-Salem NC, the Reynolda House Museum of American Art presents an acclaimed art collection in an historic and incomparable setting: the original 1917 […]
Commissioned in 1902 by financier John Pierpont Morgan as his private library, the Morgan Library building was completed in 1906 and is considered one of McKim, Mead & White’s finest works, perfectly embodying the Renaissance ideal of the unity of the arts through the integration of architecture, sculpture, and painting with exceptional craftsmanship and materials. […]
Every major city has big patches of green to relieve the hard edges of urban life. Atlanta is no exception. Smack dab in the middle of the city, about 1 mile northeast of Downtown, sitting on the edge of Midtown is Piedmont Park – noted among the city’s numerous parks as the home of the […]
For 30 years Patrick Dougherty’s enchanting Stickwork sculptures have been sprouting up at museums, botanical gardens, and public spaces around the world. Amazing what you can do with 30,000 pounds of willow! Until recently I’d never seen one, but whenever I’ve read about a Dougherty Stickwork I’ve been tantalized. So it was a delight to […]
As the world slowly, tentatively, begins to emerge from lockdown, people are wondering what the new social order will look like. Most of us accept that things will be different for some time to come. The question is, “How different?” […]
On the weekend of September 28 & 29, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), in Salem MA, will offer FREE admission to celebrate the opening of its 40,000 sq ft addition and a new, evocative garden. […]