Nothing says “Spring Break” like the Hammock Coast, the stretch of land between Mount Pleasant and Myrtle Beach adorned with spectacular coastal vistas and a Grand Strand of charming little towns such as Georgetown, Murrells Inlet, Garden City, Pawleys Island and Litchfield Beach. Whichever section you choose to stay in, there is never a dull moment. Relax by the pool or on the beach; rent kayaks; bicycle around town; tee off at Caledonia, Heritage or True Blue golf clubs or charter a boat to fish for redfish, speckled trout, black drum or flounder.
EXPAND YOUR PALATE: RUSTIC TABLE
Stroll through the Hammock Shops on Pawleys Island as well as the Georgetown Historic District with its unique antique stores and art galleries, museums, historic homes and ghost tours and the Harborwalk. In addition, make sure to add Bistro 217 and Rustic Table, featured in Food & Wine magazine, to your list of restaurant reservations. With an extensive menu of craft beers and the freshest ingredients derived from his Lake Swamp Farms, executive chef Adam Kirby blends an artful aesthetic with the taste and history of local dishes such as pulled pork barbeque with a side of Carolina Gold rice, yellow squash and the most delicious jalapeno cornbread you’ve ever tasted. Although Kirby’s barbeque sauce isn’t for sale in the adjacent shop, if you ask nicely, he might send you home with a 12-ounce container for only $6. Reserve your table at www.rustictable.com.
TRAVEL THROUGH HISTORY: HOBCAW BARONY
While it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of beach vacation mode, pause to listen to the Spanish moss draping the grand old oak trees, whispering the haunted secrets they have guarded for hundreds of years.
They will guide you to Hobcaw Barony, where you’ll be greeted by Sandy, a highly-knowledgeable volunteer who has been working at the plantation for 14 years, and whose enthusiasm for the history of the 16,000-plus acre nature preserve is contagious.
A two-hour tour of Hobcaw, a Native American word meaning “between the waters,” takes you to the Baruch mansion on Winyah Bay, where the late landowner and financier Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) once hosted Winston Churchill, President Franklin Roosevelt and Ernest Hemmingway. It will also bring you to Friendfield Village, the last slave village of the 19th century on the Waccamaw Neck. Additionally, you will travel along part of the road once known as the King’s Highway. The Hobcaw Barony Discovery Center itself is a wealth of information about the indigenous coastal ecology, wildlife and endangered species.
While you’re there, ask Sandy to tell you the stories about Bernard’s daughter Belle Baruch (1899-1964), whose foundation now operates the property. An equestrienne, sailor, hunter and an amateur pilot, Belle was a woman ahead of her time. Tickets for the Hobcaw Barony tours sell out way in advance, so book your time online at www.hobcawbarony.org or call 843-546-4623.
SITES TO SEE: BROOKGREEN GARDENS
Next, head to Brookgreen Gardens, a National Historic Site situated on four former rice plantations. Inside the over 9,000 acres of nature preserve, you’ll find a place that was recently named one of the Top 10 Botanical Gardens in America, where you’ll walk beneath the 250-year-old oaks alongside flora and fauna, reflecting ponds and rice fields amid the largest and most comprehensive collection of American figurative sculpture in the country.
Referred to as “the finest outdoor museum of its type in the world” by “Brookgreen Gardens” author Robin R. Salmon, the gardens, three galleries and a visible storage and research gallery reveal a treasure trove of over 2,700 breathtaking carvings by 425 artists. Of note is the detailed work “The Visionaries,” sculpted by Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973), who was among New York City’s most successful sculptors in the early 1900s during a time when women seldom had careers as artists.
Together with her husband, Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955), one of America’s wealthiest men during his time, Anna purchased Brookgreen Gardens as a retreat and soon realized that they wanted to share this special place with the public. “The Visionaries” portrays Anna and Archer huddled together, surrounded by the things that were most important to them: their pets, music and books. The back of the sculpture is inscribed with the following poem, composed by Archer himself:
THE SILVER GARDENS
Gray Oaks of mystery!
Beneath their cloister arches in pale rose
The morning creeps, Epiphany of day,
Filling the breathing depths with prophecy.
In lambent light and lyric preparation
To raise again the holy hymn of dawn.
A thousand choristers,
Intone their endless canticles of birth.
By flowered founds of woven shadows luring,
Haunted of footfalls of the fox and fawn,
Here loves chill not the hands that reach to them,
As roses of renown sting in the gathering.
Come to the silver gardens of the South,
Where whisper hath her monarchy, and winds
Deftly devise live tapestries of shade.
In glades of stillness patterned,
And where the red-bird like a sanguine stain,
Brings Tragedy to Beauty
Archer’s poem captures the soulful ambience of the ghosts who surely still walk the grounds today.
Next, stop to enjoy lunch and a glass of wine at the Old Kitchen, one of the buildings that survived after a fire destroyed the main house in 1901. Then head over to the Lowcountry Zoo to observe the native animals that live in the woods, swamps and waters of the region in their near-natural habitats. Before you leave, make sure to visit the stunning gift shop. To purchase your weekly pass, visit www.brookgreen.org.
Like the house of the old Brookgreen Plantation, many other plantation homes in the region were lost to fire. However, the Kaminski House Museum, Hopsewee Plantation and the Georgian-style Hampton Plantation State Historic Site are still intact and open for touring as well.
Rich with beach activities, food, drinks, homes and gardens that are steeped in a beautiful and fascinating yet often tragic history, we are fortunate to have the dazzling jewel that is the Hammock Coast in our own backyard.
By Sarah Rose
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