Ashley River Historic District

Historic district in South Carolina, United States

United States historic place

Significant dates

Ashley River Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district

Ashley River Road 1.8 mi N of Bees Ferry Rd
32°54′45″N 80°07′22″W / 32.91250°N 80.12278°W / 32.91250; -80.12278
Area	23,828.26 acres (9,642.95 ha)
Architectural style	Georgian, Italianate
NRHP reference No.	93001514^[1]
Added to NRHP	September 12, 1994
Boundary increase	October 22, 2010

Ashley River Historic District is a historic district located west of the Ashley in the South Carolina Lowcountry in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The Historic District includes land from five municipalities, almost equally split between Charleston and Dorchester counties. The district includes dry land, swamps, and marshes of the Rantowles Creek and Stono Swamp watershed.^[2]^[3]^[4]

The historic district includes historic and archaeological resources associated with the rice culture and phosphate mining of the early-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, and the hunting plantations and timber industry preserves of the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Historically, the Wando, Cooper, Ashley, Stono, and Edisto rivers served as the primary transportation routes in the Lowcountry. These waterways were used for exploration and settlement, the movement of goods, and the cultivation of staple crops.^[3]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Its boundaries were increased from 7,000 acres to 23,828.26 acres on October 22, 2010.^[1]

It includes some of the following separately listed sites as contributing properties:^[5]

Ashley River
Ashley River Road
Fort Bull
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Trestle
Drayton Hall, a National Historic Landmark;
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens (Charleston, South Carolina);
Runnymeade Schoolhouse
Middleton Place, another National Historic Landmark
Old Dorchester;
The Laurels
MacLaura Hall

Gallery

Drayton Hall, front view
House at Magnolia Plantation
Middleton Place
Ruins of the St. George Bell Tower at Old Dorchester

References

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^ Power, J. Tracy; Ian G. Hill; L.G. Tippett (July 26, 1994). "Ashley River Historic District" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Ashley River Historic District (Boundary Increase)" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. July 26, 1994. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
^ "Ashley River Historic District, Charleston and Dorchester County (along Ashley River & S.C. Hwy. 61, Charleston & Summerville vicinities, Charleston & Dorchester Counties)". National Register Properties in South Carolina. South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
^ "National Register Properties in South Carolina". South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Retrieved October 20, 2017.