The place of governors, historians and preservationists, the Legare Waring House at Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site serves as the grand seat of class at South Carolina’s birthplace. Built in the 1840’s, the modest two-story cottage was a part of Old Town Plantation. By 1865, after the burning of the plantation’s great house during the Civil War, this structure became the most significant shelter on the property for the beleaguered Parker and Legare families. In the 1930’s, Ferdinanda Izlar Legare Backer Waring became the sole owner of Old Town Plantation and the last of nine families to own the property. Moving into the house by the 1950’s she and her bushand Joseph Loor Waring transformed the house into an elegant early representation of an antebellum plantation home. Expanding it to three times its original size, it became a quaint home and an entertainers dream. By the late 1980’s, with Mr. And Mrs. Waring’s passing, their daughter, Nancy Stevenson (former Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina) recommended the home as a Charleston residence for the sitting governor. Since that time, it has hosted South Carolina’s first families, national officials and international dignitaries.

Map of House & Gardens