Spring 2023 Interiors

INTERIORS

D ear Friends,

This past Christmas I received an extraordinary gift from my parents - a photograph of me taken at Drayton Hall in the summer of 1980. Looking beyond my parent’s fashion selection, it is clear that this was not just any gift, but rather a gift of a gift as the photograph captures their introducing me to the importance of history and the value of historic preservation. Over the years, my father the historian and archaeologist, along with my mother the teacher and librarian, treated me to countless historic sites and museums as did all four of my grandparents. From the castles of Europe to the streets of Colonial Williamsburg, historic places were a central part of my upbringing, and this not only influenced my own career but my appreciation for education and history.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

William B. (Bill) Bodine, Chair

Marilynn Wood Hill, Vice Chair

Thomas W. (Woody) Rash Jr., Vice Chair

H. Montague (Monty) Osteen Jr., Treasurer

Betsy Halstead, Secretary

Richard Almeida

Nathan (Nate) Berry

Catherine Brown Braxton

Dirk Brown

John T. Cahill

Matthew Cochrane-Logan

Frank B. Drayton Jr.

Shannon C. Eaves

Debra Gammons

Cynthia (Cynnie) Kellogg

Kristopher B. King

Benjamin F. (Ben) Lenhardt Jr.

Fulton D. (Tony) Lewis Jr.

Katherine Malone-France

Peter McCoy Jr.

Margaret Beck Pritchard

Henry B. Smythe Jr.

Vanessa Turner-Maybank

Shelia Wertimer

Anthony C. (Tony) Wood

TRUSTEES EMERITI

W. Hampton Morris

Michael B. Prevost

Carter C. Hudgins, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer

Michelle Tyler, Executive Assistant and Board Liasion

FINANCE

Paula Marion, Chief Financial Officer

Michelle Johanek, Finance Coordinator

GUEST SERVICES

Kate Ludwig, Director of Retail and Admissions

Emily Hendrix, Event & Specialty Sales

Guest Services Associates: Tim Chesser, Brian DiGennaro, Katie Gardner, Mary Marsh, Leslie Ross, Donna Seymour

43 years later, Drayton Hall continues to inspire me and more importantly thousands of annual visitors and Friends such as you. As exemplified through our student education programs, daily interpreter led tours of the property, and special programs, Drayton Hall Preservation Trust deeply believes that understanding our past is essential to building a stronger modern society, and we remain committed to connecting guests of all ages to our shared American past. Such can only be achieved with your support, and we are grateful for all that you do to protect, research, and uplift one of our nation’s most important historic places.

I hope that you will consider connecting your friends and family to Drayton Hall as both my parents and grandparents did so many years ago. I promise it will inspire and encourage future discoveries.

With sincere gratitude,

Carter C. Hudgins, Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer

ARCHAEOLOGY

Luke Pecoraro, PhD., Director of Archaeology

Nicole Houck, Staff Archaeologist

MUSEUM PROGRAMS

Sarah Stroud Clarke, Director of Museum Affairs

Amber Satterthwaite, Curator of Education and Museum Programs

Historical Interpreters: Morgan Blackwelder, William Dowd, Rosemary Giesy, Betsy McAmis, Grayson Peoples, Veronica Pieretti, Thomas Rogers, Leslie Ross

PRESERVATION

Patricia Lowe Smith, Director of Preservation

Will Young, Preservation Associate

LANDSCAPES AND FACILITIES

Jeff McNeely, Director of Landscapes and Facilities

Raymond Nesmith, Landscape and Horticulture Technician

Tom Eline, Landscape and Horticulture Technician

COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING

Patty B. Sailer, Communications and Marketing Manager

DEVELOPMENT

Halley Cella Erickson, Director of Philanthropy

Lela Gee-Boswell Solomon, Advancement Manager

Molly McGaan, Leadership Giving Manager

Board of Trustees

Shelia Wertimer has been elected to serve on Drayton Hall Preservation Trust Board of Trustees.

Landscape Architect Sheila Wertimer has played a major role in the development of public and private gardens in the Lowcountry since 1979, and we are thrilled to have her as our latest elected truste. Recently retired from Wertimer + Cline, Inc. of Charleston where she served as the Principal for thirty-seven years, Ms. Wertimer also held positions as a Landscape Architect for the City of Charleston and E.A. Sanborne & Asssociates in Madison, Wisconsin, as well as a Designer at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Ms. Wertimer earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University and was awarded a traveling fellowship (The Dreer Award) by the university to travel extensively throughout the United Kingdom for a year post graduation. Additionally, she served as a Teaching Assistant while attending the Landscape Architecture master’s program at the University of Wisconsin. Throughout her career, Ms. Wertimer has received numerous honors and awards, to include the Historic Charleston Foundation’s Impact Award and the Robert N.S. & Patti Foos Whitelaw Founders Award; the Charleston Horticultural Society’s 1883 Award; and the Preservation Society of Charleston’s Carolopolis Awards from 1990-Present.

Ms. Wertimer has been an instrumental member of Drayton Hall’s Landscape & Archeology Committee since 2012 and joined the Board of Trustees in January 2023. In addition to Drayton Hall, she currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Preservation Society of Charleston and on the Advisory Board for the College of Charleston’s Riley Center for Livable Communities.

Fiscal Report

July 1, 2021 - June 30,2022

Revenue & Support FY22

Earned Income - 24% $773,566

Contributed Income - 33% $1,091,594

Grant Support - 10% $338,073

Endowment Draw - 31% $1,022,574

Non-Endowment Investment Income - 2% $49,587

Expenditures FY22

Program - 75% $2,193,555

Administrative - 13% $390,686

Fundraising - 12% $358,583

Your Membership Dollars at Work

Did you know, that as a Friend of Drayton Hall, your annual investment opens doors to regional and national grant opportunities? Often, federal institutions like the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) include a dollar-fordollar match in their eligibility requirements for funding opportunities like the 2021 Americas Rescue Plan (ARP) grants. The IMLS designed the ARP grant program to help museums and libraries address continuing impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and you made it possible for Drayton Hall to access this critical relief funding.

As recently reported to the IMLS, Drayton Hall’s curatorial team utilized our ARP grant award to expand operating hours and programming. By splitting this funding between the archaeology and education teams, the IMLS—and your membership dollars—helped us to identify and tell the stories of the 18th and mid-19th century enslaved community at Drayton Hall. Curator of Education and Museum Programs Amber Satterthwaite hired and trained new interpreters to lead engaging tours of the house. As part of Satterthwaite’s new, rigorous training program, Drayton Hall’s interpretive team is now better equipped than ever to speak ethically and effectively about difficult histories. Meanwhile, Director of Archaeology Luke Pecoraro hired a staff archaeologist—a new position for Drayton Hall—allowing his team to undertake more fieldwork, begin to build a volunteer program, and open the Stephen J. Wood Conservation Laboratory.

The benefit of this IMLS ARP grant award is both immediate and long-lasting. By enabling us to unveil new findings and hone story-telling skills, this program advances the visitor experience day-to-day, in real-time. Ultimately, as our curatorial teams learn from new discoveries, their findings will be folded into the Drayton Hall narrative for years to come.

Thank you for being a Member of the Friends of Drayton Hall. Without you, we would not have access to opportunities like the IMLS ARP grant program.

WHAT PAINT CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE LIVES OF THE ENSLAVED

If you ’ re unsure how much time has passed since Drayton Hall was constructed, your first look at the paint on the interior walls might give you some idea.

Despite being carefully conserved with a technique that gently reattached fractured bits of historic paint to the wall, Drayton Hall's paint still shows its age What it doesn’t show is how many important clues lie hidden within its layers. To uncover such clues, we use a scalpel and tweezers to take tiny samples which, viewed under a microscope, reveal snapshots from the house’s history

Six years ago, we started using paint analysis to help us better understand the service spaces inside Drayton Hall that is--the spaces primarily used or traversed by enslaved individuals engaged in cooking, cleaning, childcare and other domestic duties What we learned changed the way we talk about Drayton Hall A tiny paint sample, magnified 200 times, revealed animal fats clinging to tiny soot particles trapped beneath several layers of whitewash evidence of a cooking fire in close proximity to the sample location, in a space that was less likely to be used for preparing meals for the Draytons It was evidence of a dwelling place for enslaved people, and it was located in the cellar of Drayton Hall This tiny paint sample helped us understand that while the slave houses on this property did not survive, Drayton Hall, was indeed a slave house a place where enslaved people slept and prepared their meals and lived their lives alongside their enslavers

This last round of paint analysis revealed additional information about the service spaces in Drayton Hall but since then our list of research questions has grown We hope to take more samples that will help us understand the prevalence of a bright red paint that survives in a few locations of the cellar. Was that space more colorful in the 18th century? What can the paint layers tell us about the graffiti that appears around the house who might have done it, and when? Can we determine when various architectural features were added or removed and can we test for residues on shelves to tell us what was once stored on them? These are just some of the questions that we hope to answer in 2023 to enrich our understanding of these important service spaces.

Dr. Susan Buck, conservator and paint analyst takes paint samples from the Upper Great Hall fireplace at Drayton Hall to examine under a microscope

To find these answers, renowned conservator and paint analyst Susan Buck will travel to Drayton Hall to take samples and then return to her lab to process and interpret what she collects This process can be time-consuming and requires the use of high-tech microscopes and other laboratory equipment to find the answers we seek, but the time and expense involved will inevitably bring important new insights about the lives of the enslaved at Drayton Hall

We will be seeking grant funding for this project but if you would like to support this work please contact Molly McGaan, Leadership Giving Manager at, 843-769-2611, mmcgaan@draytonhall.org, for more information.

LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT ON HISTORIC LOWCOUNTRY GROUNDS

Zoysia grass, azalea shrubs, saw palms, Live Oaks, loblolly pines, pink roses, fragrant tea olives, hardwood mulch, water drainage, water irrigation, landscape lighting and wildlife management...

These are just a few things that are attended to everyday here everyday at Drayton Hall by the site’s Landscape Staff. Preservation and presentation are two key components in how Drayton Hall Preservation Trust staff engage in the management of this vast historic property.

Three individuals are to be credited with the stewardship of Drayton Hall’s landscapes. Jeff McNeely, Director of Facilities and Landscapes, leads the group in preserving the grounds, studying the overall ecology, monitoring the exhibition of the Lenhardt Garden, and the ongoing stewardship of the seasonal environment. Tom Eline, a 5-year Drayton Hall Landscape and Horticulture Technician, oversees the Sally Reahard Visitor Center, the Lenhardt Garden, and the George McDaniel Education Center. During Tom’s tenure since Drayton Hall opened the Visitor’s Center, he has been influential in its seasonal displays, its continual health and abundance of fragrant flowers which supply a nurturing base for the local pollination community. Along with these responsibilities, Tom provides care to the parking and amenities area, the main entrance plantings and assists in wildlife management throughout the property. Raymond Nesmith, a 35-year veteran Landscape and Horticulture Technician of Drayton Hall, provides a very appreciated base of knowledge to utilize in the management of the grounds directly surrounding the historic home, the river front walk, and the entrance lanes. He is instrumental in creating and maintaining paths throughout the property which guests utilize to explore and engage the history of Drayton Hall.

Having a staff of just three to maintain, promote and nourish such an important Lowcountry estate is not the easiest task. However, modern inventions - since the use of scythes and horses to manage the grounds - have dramatically increased productivity. One such item is our mid-size diesel tractor. Today, Drayton Hall’s staff utilizes a new 2022 John Deere 3032E compact tractor, purchased with support from the Friends of Drayton Hall. It replaces a well-used, 2008 Massey Ferguson 1529 compact tractor. The new tractor’s options include a detachable front end loader bucket and pallet fork. The bucket is being utilized in moving bulk materials and fallen tree logs of which there were many following Hurricane Ian, and grading the aggregate surfaces throughout the property. The pallet forks have been used to unload equipment and materials delivered to Drayton Hall for exhibition and preservation purposes. This was an option not previously available for Drayton Hall staff to use. The ability to interchange attachments are proving exceedingly useful and opens the door to additional attachments being used in future expansions of historical areas for guests to discover and experience.

Staff, equipment, and materials, together with preservation and presentation-minded procedures are the essential ingredients utilized everday at Drayton Hall. Another vital and often under-represented force are volunteers. Those with the heart, dedication, and availability to donate their time to Drayton Hall in order to further the experience of our guests are welcome! Three of these selfless volunteers are Fran Hummel, Trish Chaney, and Laura Dubato. They have started a new chapter here at Drayton Hall in donating their time, experiences, and gardening knowledge. The “Three Good Fairies” are deeply involved in the Charleston gardening community and are graciously gifting their dedication and Master Gardener experiences to the Lenhardt Garden and surrounding landscapes.

Fran Hummel, a previous Drayton Hall Preservation Trust volunteer, has really proven her Master Gardener status with the Charleston Parks Conservancy, the West Ashley Magnolia Community Garden, Carter May Assisted Living Therapeutic Garden, and with students at the Charleston Area Therapeutic Riding Center garden activities. Her teaching background and avid pursuits to promote green spaces and community involvement are a priceless blessing to everyone at Drayton Hall. Trish and Laura, both amazing volunteers with extensive gardening know-how and community spirit, are gifts in their own right to all here at Drayton Hall. Their gardening essence is an essential component of what Drayton Hall Preservation Trust seeks in its green space volunteers. If you would like to experience the peacefulness, the serenity, and the history here at Drayton Hall as a volunteer, please reach out to Michelle Tyler at mtyler@draytonhall.org or Jeff McNeely at jmcneely@draytonhall.org for further information and opportunities.

Members receive a special member-only-discount of 25% off when purchasing online, now through July 2023 with the code

DHINT25