‘Let’s have a look at that impacted wisdom tooth!’
“Samson and the Lion,” one of many sculptures on display at Brookgreen Gardens. (Photo/Robert Clark)
Head east-southeast for 175 miles and set your coordinates on Brookgreen Gardens. There you’ll find the world’s largest collection of outdoor sculpture (1,444 statues) in one of the Southeast’s more beautiful public gardens. Brookgreen Gardens is a major destination close by Murrells Inlet where you can find plenty of fine seafood restaurants when your statue gazing is done. Myrtle Beach is close by as well. Plenty to do on this day trip for sure.
In the beginning, the sprawling site where Brookgreen sits was part of four rice plantations. One of those plantations, Brookgreen, bequeathed its name to the gardens. The thousands of acres in Brookgreen’s Lowcountry History and Wildlife Preserve are rich with native plants and animals of the South Carolina Lowcountry. You’ll see evidence of the great rice plantations of the 1800s, too.
Archer M. Huntington was the stepson of railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington. He and his wife, Anna, a noted sculptor, purchased the four rice plantations (9,100 acres) as a site for showcasing sculptures. The location provided a more temperate refuge for Anna Huntington, who suffered tuberculosis from the mid-twenties to the mid-thirties. She and Archer would go on to found Brookgreen Gardens. They built a winter home, “Atalaya,” Spanish for watchtower. Archer Huntington, a noted Spanish culture expert, designed the house after the Moorish architecture of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. A square tower, which housed a 3,000-gallon cypress water tank, rises about 40 feet over the structure. Architecture of this type is rare in the United States. As you’d expect it is on National Register of Historic Places.
Founded in 1931 as the nation’s first sculpture garden, statuary is abundant. See for instance Gleb W. Derujinsky’s “Samson & The Lion,” which he sculpted in 1949. It was placed in Brookgreen Gardens in 1950. Note how the play of light upon the stone brings realism to this work that depicts Samson as a force of nature. The statute stands at the center of a reflecting pool.
Another popular statue is “Diana,” which stands in the middle of a circular pool as jets of water pay her homage. Augustus Saint-Gaudens sculpted “Diana.” One of America’s greatest artists his work is exhibited around the world. He became an American when his French father and Irish mother brought him to New York after his 1848 birth in Dublin.
Visit the Garden’s website and check out its Events page. From January to March 6, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon and 2:30 p.m. you can reserve a ride on the Trekker, a safari-like van, down back roads and explore cemeteries, Brookgreen’s “Silent Cities.” Walk through former slaves and plantation owner graveyards and learn about the historical burial customs of European and African origin. Tickets are $15 in addition to garden admission for this two-hour excursion.
If You Go …
• Brookgreen Gardens
1931 Brookgreen Garden Dr.
Pawleys Island, S.C. 29585
• Adults 13 to 64, $14; Seniors 65 and over, $12; Children 4 to 7, $7; Children 3 and under, Free
• 843-235-6000
• www.brookgreen.org/
Learn more about Tom Poland, a Southern writer, and his work at www.tompoland.net. Email day-trip ideas to him at tompol@earthlink.net.