Barbados Tropical Garden

Many of Charleston’s earliest settlers both free and enslaved came to North America via the tropical island of Barbados. The small Caribbean island was a crossroads for the sugar industry in the 17th century and many Europeans migrated there to try and make their fortunes.  Barbados and Charleston maintained a lively trading relationship, and Charleston inherited many traditions from the island, some still visible today in Charleston’s architecture: the single-house with its side porch was first developed in Barbados where such structures were built to take advantage of prevailing ocean breezes. 

Thomas Drayton was one of English colonists who tried Barbados before sailing to Charlestown in 1676.  Once in the Carolina colony, Thomas Drayton met and married Ann Fox, receiving Magnolia Plantation as a wedding present from Ann’s father, Stephen Fox.  Shortly after, the pair built the first house at Magnolia. This indoor tropical garden is a tribute to the island with which the Drayton family has maintained a special affinity for more than three centuries.