Brookgreen Gardens is a

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

garden and

wildlife preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

, located just south of

Murrells Inlet Murrells Inlet is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Georgetown County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 7,547 at the 2010 census. It is about 13 miles south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and 21 miles north ...

, in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. The property includes several themed gardens featuring American figurative sculptures, the Lowcountry Zoo, and trails through several

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

s in nature reserves on the property. It was founded by Archer Milton Huntington, stepson of railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington, and Anna Hyatt Huntington, his wife, to feature sculptures by Anna and her sister

Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor (1868-1960) was an American artist and sculptor active in the late 19th century. She contributed work to the World's Columbian Exposition, among other exhibitions. Life and career Harriet Randolf Hyatt was born in Sal ...

, along with other American sculptors. Brookgreen Gardens was opened in 1932. It was developed on property of four former rice

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

s, taking its name from the former

Brookgreen Plantation Brook Green is a small hamlet on the Isle of Wight located at Brook on the Back of the Wight. It is owned by the National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity a ...

, which dates to the antebellum period.

Early history

The property that now comprises Brookgreen Gardens was four rice

s. The plantations from south to north were The Oaks, Brookgreen, Springfield, and Laurel Hill. The current gardens and surrounding facilities are located completely within the former

, which was owned by Joshua John Ward. Before his death in 1853, he held more than 1,000 enslaved African Americans and in 1860 his estate (in his name) was the largest slaveholder in the United States. Only a handful of relics survive on the former plantations. The Alston (or Allston) cemetery survives on the grounds of The Oaks plantation. Gov. Joseph Alston and his child are buried in the cemetery. The same grave is a memorial to the governor's wife Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

Aaron Burr Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Burr's legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexand ...

, who was lost at sea. Her ghost is said to haunt the Grand Strand, looking for her father. The

rice mill A rice mill is a food-processing facility where paddy is processed to rice to be sold in the market. The entire product is procured from paddy fields, milled and processed hygienically in modern machinery and dust-free environment and cleaned t ...

at Laurel Hill is all that stands of that plantation today. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

, Confederates built an earthen structure on the grounds to block Union Navy ships from coming into the tidal rivers.

The Huntingtons

Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington of Redding, Connecticut purchased the four plantations in order to develop gardens to showcase her sculptures. Situated on Waccamaw Neck in Georgetown County, South Carolina, between the

Waccamaw River The Waccamaw River is a river, approximately 140 miles (225 km) long, in southeastern North Carolina and eastern South Carolina in the United States. It drains an area of approximately 1,110 square miles (2886 km²) in the coastal plai ...

and the Atlantic coast, Brookgreen Gardens is the country's first public sculpture garden. It has the largest collection in the world of figurative sculpture by American artists in an outdoor setting. It is also a nature and historical preserve with a small

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to z ...

and a nature exhibition center. Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington first visited the area in 1929. Because they were captivated by its beauty, they purchased nearly of forest,

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

, rice fields, and beachfront. They intended to establish a winter home on the coast, but Anna saw the potential of the property. They began to develop her vision of making it a showcase for her sculptures. Archer, son of

philanthropists Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Arabella Worsham Huntington and stepson of

Collis Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested i ...

, and Anna have donated property and contributed to U.S. arts and culture in a number of states. Her sculpture of

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

is a feature of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

's Riverside Park.

Public landmark

Sculpture gardens

About 1,445 works of American figurative

are displayed at the Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington Sculpture Garden. Many of the works are by Hyatt Huntington, but other artists are also featured. Walkways and garden paths link the sculptures in their distinctive garden, fountain, or landscape settings, with vistas of the scenery surrounding them. A area of Brookgreen Gardens was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1978. The sculpture garden portion, , of Brookgreen Gardens was included in the designation of Atalaya and Brookgreen Gardens as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

in 1984. and Atalaya Castle is just across

U.S. 17 U.S. Route 17 or U.S. Highway 17 (US 17), also known as the Coastal Highway, is a north–south United States Highway that spans in the southeastern United States. It runs close to the Atlantic Coast for much of its length, with ...

, which cuts through the former combined Huntington property. The sculpture gardens includes works by: * Robert Alexander Baillie *

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Georg ...

* Joseph Lorkowski Boulton *

Clio Hinton Bracken Clio Hinton Bracken (1870–1925) was an American sculptor. A native of Rhinebeck, New York, Bracken studied with Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Her mother was a painter and sculptor, and she shared studio space with her cousin, Roland Hinton Perry ...

* Cornelia Van Auken Chapin * Henry Clews * Joseph Bailey Ellis * Sally James Farnham * Joseph Charles Fleri * Vincent Glinsky * Karl Gruppe * Ethel Painter Hood * Edith Howland * Cecil de Blaquiere Howard * Anna Hyatt Huntington * Leo Lentelli * Donald De Lue * Albino Manca * Edward Francis McCartan * Eleanor Mary Mellon *

Roland Hinton Perry Roland Hinton Perry (January 25, 1870 – October 27, 1941)"New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WRL-TLD : 20 March 2015), Roland Perry, 27 Oct 1941; citing Death, ...

Attilio Piccirilli Attilio Piccirilli (May 16, 1866 – October 8, 1945) was an American sculptor. Born in Massa, Italy, he was educated at the Accademia di San Luca of Rome. Life and career Piccirilli came to the United States in 1888 and worked for his f ...

Furio Piccirilli Furio Piccirilli (March 27, 1868 – January 17, 1949) was an Italian-born American sculptor and one of the Piccirilli Brothers. Piccirilli was born in Massa, Italy into a family with a long tradition of carving and sculpting. Like his older ...

* Horatio Piccirilli *

Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he tra ...

* Louis St. Gaudens *

Marion Sanford Marion Sanford (February 9, 1904 - February 1987) was an American sculptor known for her bronze portraits of women engaged in everyday domestic activities. Early life and career Sanford was born to American parents in Guelph, Ontario and was ra ...

* Janet Scudder * Amory Coffin Simons * Erwin Springweiler * Charles Eugene Tefft

Lowcountry Trail

Winner of the South Carolina Heritage Tourism Award, the Lowcountry Trail is a boardwalk that crosses the hillside overlooking Mainfield, a restored rice field of the former

. For enslaved African Americans on Brookgreen Plantation, this hill was a bridge between the world of daily work and life in the slave village beyond the crest of the hill. The rhythms of life – planting, growing, harvesting, threshing – changed seasonally for everyone on the rice plantation. Archaeological survey and excavation projects have revealed the remains of four structures on the hillside: the site of the overseer's residence at the apex of the hill, and its kitchen, smokehouse and dependency closer to the edge of the rice field. Along the trail, interpretive panels that describe life on a rice plantation and four stainless steel figures have been placed to represent the Plantation Owner, the Overseer, and an Enslaved African Male and an Enslaved African Female. These figures, created in stainless steel b
Babette Bloch
serve as visually compelling figures to draw visitors along the trail and to interpret an account of each person's role in the economic and social system of a Lowcountry plantation.

Lowcountry Trail Audio Tour

The Lowcountry Trail Audio Tour is a public education program that emphasizes historic preservation. The tour winds along the Ricefield Overlook and adjacent rice field and is free with garden admission. A 30-minute fictional story about life on Brookgreen Plantation unwinds progressively as listeners walk the trail.

Zoo and plantation sites

The Lowcountry Zoo and the Lowcountry Center are also on the property. 'Trekker tours' are conducted on the backroads of the former plantations. Recent archeological work has uncovered the foundations of several buildings at The Oaks plantation. Ponds have been created from the former 'Brookgreen' plantation house sites.

Natural areas

The Atlantic Coast side of the property was later leased to the state of

to form Huntington Beach State Park. Boat tours are available from here with views of Sandy Island. A self-guided tour of the nature trail shows off the 2000 identified species of life, including longleaf pines, Spanish moss draped live oaks, and vistas of the river, and nearby marshland. The gardens make every effort to preserve the natural environment.

Nights of a Thousand Candles

Every year, the Brookgreen gardens are lit up with more than 2,700 candles and countless lights set among the plants, trees and sculptures of the garden. Tickets for the same are available every year for visitors.

Awards and recognition

* Top 10 Public Gardens in the US by ''Coastal Living Magazine'' * American Public Gardens Association Award for Garden Excellence, 2019 * Gari Melchers Memorial Medal from the Artists’ Fellowship, 2018 * ''USAToday'' 10Best - #9 in Best Botanical Garden category, 2018 * ''USAToday'' 10Best - ''Nights of a Thousand Candles'' Top 10 in Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights category, 2018

Photo gallery

Image:Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture15.jpg, ''Fountain of the Muses'' - by

Carl Milles Carl Milles (; 23 June 1875 – 19 September 1955) was a Swedish sculptor. He was married to artist Olga Milles (née Granner) and brother to Ruth Milles and half-brother to the architect Evert Milles. Carl Milles sculpted the Gustaf Vasa s ...

(1949-1955) Image:Cowboy Brookgreen Gardens.JPG, Resident alligator named Cowboy at Lowcountry Zoo Image:Rice trunk.JPG, Rice mill 'trunk' site in Lowcountry plantations area Image:Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture51.jpg, ''Athlete'' - sculpture in garden by Rudulph Evans (1915) Image:Forest Idyll Brookgreen Gardens.jpg, '' Forest Idyll'' by Albin Polasek (1924)

References

External links

*
Brookgreen In Infrared

*
Brookgreen Gardens - Murrell's Inlet, SC
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in South Carolina Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in the United States Museums in Georgetown County, South Carolina Outdoor sculptures in South Carolina Gardens in South Carolina Zoos in South Carolina National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums National Register of Historic Places in Georgetown County, South Carolina Protected areas of Georgetown County, South Carolina Historic district contributing properties in South Carolina Protected areas established in 1932 Art museums established in 1932 1932 establishments in South Carolina Huntington family