The peaceful waterfront of
GEORGETOWN , the first town
beyond Myrtle Beach to be anything more than a beach town, makes a
refreshing and quite extraordinary contrast, while the main street has
a late-Fifties feel.
Ask at the visitor center , 1001 Front St (tel 1-800/777-7705), for a
self-guided walking tour sheet to the fine antebellum and
eighteenth-century houses in the 32-block historic district in the
center. A quick stroll down the boardwalk, however, gives all-too-clear
views of the monstrous steel works on the opposite bank.
The
Rice Museum (Mon-Sat 10am-4.30pm; $5), in the clock
tower on Front Street, tells how the cultivation of rice flourished on
the coast during the slavery period. On the north side of town, turning
east after the bridge, is the Belle W. Baruch Plantation
($15; by appointment only; tel 843/546-4623).
Though fairly overgrown, the plantation's original "
slave street
" is still standing, complete with wooden shacks and a church. It
serves as a powerful reminder of the brutal basis of antebellum
southern prosperity, and an interesting look at the home of Bernard M.
Baruch, who gave economic advice to presidents Woodrow Wilson on up to
JFK.
If you want to
stay
in Georgetown, the
Carolinian Clarion
, 706 Church St (tel 843/546-5191; $50-75), is a good bet, and has a pool. To
eat
, you needn't stray from the motel's restaurant,
Hook, Line and Sinker
, which serves superlative crabcakes, fish stews and Low Country Boils until 9pm daily except Sunday.
Hopsewee Plantation
, the grand mansion home of Thomas Lynch, a signatory of the
Declaration of Independence, is set in Spanish moss-draped grounds,
twelve miles south of Georgetown on US-17 (March-Oct Mon-Fri; Nov-Feb
by appointment only; $8; tel 843/546-7891). Clouds of large and
ferocious mosquitoes drift up from the adjacent river, so think twice
before visiting in summer.
The less manicured, and slightly less
mosquito-plagued Hampton Plantation State Park , further south, two miles
off US-17 on Hwy-857, is probably closer to the look of a typical
plantation. The grounds (9am-6pm; free) are pretty, but the house
(summer Thurs-Mon 11am-4pm; rest of year 1pm-4pm; $2) is most
impressive, a huge eighteenth-century Neoclassical monolith built by
Huguenots.
The plantation itself is isolated in the heart of the
dense Francis Marion National Forest . This heavily black area
is particularly known for its sweetgrass basket-weaving, a craft that
originated with the slaves in West Africa, using tight bundles of
grasses to make intricate baskets and pots. These baskets are now considered art only found in this part of the country.
Further south, beyond the forest and a few miles north of Charleston, is the much-publicized
Boone Hall Plantation
(April-Aug Mon-Sat 8.30am-6.30pm, Sun 1-5pm; Sept-March Mon-Fri
9am-5pm, Sun 1-4pm; $12.50). The grounds are more interesting,
with a long, tree-lined drive and another rare slave street, this time
of small mid-eighteenth-century brick cabins that housed privileged
slaves - domestic servants and skilled artisans.
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Coastal SC 
