Middleton Place's Rice Mill--Once a Tea Room Managed by a Summerville Matron and the Digs for a Famous Southern Chef

Halcyon Place was the name of a Southern Style house on South Main Street owned by Mr. and Mrs. George S. Weed at this pivotal time in Summerville's history. It would become the Halcyon Inn during the town's Golden Age.

The inn was not known for accommodating famous guests like the Pine Forest and Carolina Inns, at least I am not aware of any. Framed by the property's groves of magnolias and oaks, its sprawling two-story white-columned porch was a welcoming reminder of space and calmness for its seasonal patrons. A strategically placed joggling board offered an amusing session of relaxing contemplation. If the moment was right and the sojourner willing, the inn's host would retell the endearing story of the fateful circumstances that brought the wooden apparatus to the house.

Mrs. Caroline Parameter, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Weed, was well known for her delicious entrees. Mrs. Parameter also showcased her culinary expertise at the springtime Tea Room on Middleton Place for the Junior League of Charleston during the late 1920s. The Tea Room was the first of the Junior League's fundraising enterprises.

Middleton's rice mill, situated next to the butterfly lakes and the rice mill pond, underwent weighty alterations during its transformation into the "tea room." The revamped two-story building, topped with a mansard roof, offered a tranquil setting for sipping locally grown Southern tea and sharing meaningful Lowcountry conversation. In its second-floor kitchen, League volunteers prepared okra soup and made sandwiches that they served to guests seated at tables overlooking the Ashley River. The first-floor eating area, adorned by a fireplace and andirons, was outfitted with a dumbwaiter the staff used to transfer food from the kitchen.

The Tea Room remained in the Rice Mill until 1949 when it was moved to a new location and became the Middleton Place Restaurant. It was converted to a museum in 1956, featuring a spinning wheel and "Brown Bess" over the fireplace.

The Restaurant building was designed by W. Bancel LaFarge in 1933, based on research done in Barbados, and has the same roof lines as the Rice Mill. Originally used as a guest house, it had two bedrooms and a sitting room upstairs. The cypress-paneled room downstairs was a living and game room surrounded by a screened porch. The Cypress Room, now used as a private dining room, was originally a series of storerooms leading to the plantation office.

In 1985, the owners of Middleton Place persuaded Edna Lewis, one of the country's ten most influential women in the food industry and one of the founders of Cafe Nicholson on Manhattan's East Side, to join them with a goal to inspire a menu based on historical records of early Carolina plantation cooking. She took up residence in the Rice Mill and became their head chef and consultant.

Many ideas for Edna's menu came from a book called "The Carolina Housewife" published in 1847 by Sara Rutledge, a cousin of the Middletons. Although the recipes in the book are incomplete by today's standards, Lewis drew the essentials from them and developed dishes that the well-to-do Middletons might have eaten. Dishes like panned quail with julienne of country ham and spoon bread, rabbit pate, broiled oysters on the half shell with buttered crumbs, pan-fried flounder, watercress soup, grits, shrimp paste, whole strawberry preserves, chocolate souffle, and caramel layer cake.

There are two choices for seating at the restaurant, the dining room or the garden. The view from the dining room is stunning. Lined with large windows, it overlooks the old rice mill pond and picturesque Azalea Hillside. If available, the garden seating offers an intimate, quiet space with a view of the spacious field in front of the South Flanker.

Enclosed by a three-foot brick wall and draped overhead by Spanish moss, a variety of potted plants accented the space--a perfect setting for sipping on an afternoon sweet tea, or if you are feeling a little more fruity, a glass of wine.

Despite the varied menu, I kept it simple and chose the special of the day, a roast turkey sandwich topped with green fried tomatoes and field greens picked from their on-site garden partnered with a side of French fries--sublime.

The casual lunch was sufficient. I was at Middleton Place for its historic surroundings and the garden atmosphere offered by its restaurant. With the warm Charleston sun shining overhead, the setting was perfect for basking in the aura of an antique building and savoring a delicious meal under the shadowy canopy of an ancient oak tree.

In the distance, basking in the soft rays of the Lowcountry sun on the other side of Rice Mill Pond, stood the old brick building that was a rice mill, a tea room managed by a Summerville matron, a museum, and the digs for a famous Southern chef. The halcyon scene was picture-perfect.

Nine Places In Changing Summerville You Will Want To Visit And Photograph

With a highly celebrated historical landscape, Summerville has plenty to offer the discerning amateur photographer looking for that cherished photo memento. As you stroll Hutchinson Square and beyond, surviving remnants from the town's past are there for you to discover and capture with the click of your camera. Don't hesitate, as quick as the shutter blinks, the scene of Summerville is changing, as it has and as it will. That is the nature of things. Freeze framing the moments are imperative.

Just imagine, if you dare, even the long-standing Angel Oak will eventually succumb to the powers to be. It will be a sad day when that happens, but for those who have preserved their visit to the oldest living thing east of the Rockies with a photo, its place in time will always be remembered. What will take its place in history, only time will tell.

Summerville has been richly graced with thick groves of tall pines and old oaks. Their cooling touch and healing scent was what enticed early plantation owners to take up residence on its sandy hills. From those very same trees, they constructed their simple homes. The community grew and the trees were declared sacred. In time, some of the trees bowed to the Pine Forest Inn and an era of prosperity was ushered in. Of the trees still around today, longtime residents nurture fond memories and tell stories of playing below their broad branches.

Located near the corner where W Richardson meets Central Ave and considered the oldest tree in Summerville, the old pine is scheduled for an appointment with the axman to make way for the highly contested Dorchester Hotel project. Ragged from time and weather, the trees glory days have past. People no longer come to Summerville for health, they come for the charm, the hospitality, and the history.

We could dignify the old tree the way the Hopelands Gardens in Aiken honored one of its prominent cedars when a portion of it came down. They carved benches out of the cherished wood and placed them on site for visitors to see.

Eventually, each pine in its time will succumb to the powers to be. The scene of Summerville is changing. Like the first settlers and early town planners, may we seize the opportune moments presented to us and take Summerville into another era of prosperity.

I have picked nine places in and around Summerville's rich-in-history landscape that have become my favorite framed souvenirs. I offer this list as a suggestion of places you may want to check out and photograph on your next visit.

1) Colonial Dorchester State Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. From 1697 until the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the trading town of Dorchester flourished along the Ashley River, inland from colonial Charleston. Abandoned at the start of the Revolutionary War, the town of Dorchester has all but disappeared, leaving only the remains of a brick bell tower from St. George's Anglican Church, the foundation outline of a colonial home and a the fort made of an oyster-shell concrete called tabby. More pictures.

2) Linwood Bed and Breakfast was built on a two-acre site in 1883 by Julia Drayton Hastie, heiress to Magnolia on the Ashley Plantation. Ancient camellias, azaleas, majestic magnolias and stately palms dominate the properties landscape. Elevated porches offer a panoramic view of the lush, more formal gardens. It has been a bed and breakfast for over 13 years, officially opening in 1995 with elegant guest rooms, private baths, secluded sitting areas, a large swimming pool, and wide porches. More pictures.

3) Guerin's Pharmacy was founded in 1871 by Dr. Henry C. Guerin after buying out Schwettman Drugstore and moving the business to South Main Street and Richardson Ave. The Dunnings later acquired the pharmacy in 1975. When they were remodeling the interior they discovered a white chalk message scrawled on a wall by Joe Guerin in an upstairs office. The message documented the tragic sinking of the Titanic in 1912. It is the oldest operating pharmacy in South Carolina. Today, you can order a float, milkshake, hot dog or lemonade from its fountain.

4) My favorite of the old inns, White Gables was built by the Peake Family somewhere between the 1830's and early 1850's. In the early 1900's, Sara Woodruff developed a fondness for the near 65 year old house located on the corner of Richardson Ave and Palmetto Street. What happened next gave birth to her distinguished story and White Gables fame. Both fascinating and amusing, it is a story unlike any other in Summerville history. More pictures.

5) Middleton Place on the Ashley was settled in the late 17th century with its main family residence constructed in 1705. The estate encompasses America's oldest landscaped gardens called "the most important and most interesting garden in America." The Gardens were started by Henry Middleton in 1741. In 1952, Middleton Place began welcoming visitors to its gardens year-round. Every year Middleton Place host the finale of the Spoleto Festival. In the spring from April to May, on Wednesday, you can enjoy the gardens and sample old and new world wines at the Wine Stroll...More pictures.

6) Arriving and departing guests of the Pine Forest Inn passed through these decorative columns for forty years, beginning in 1891. The inn was world renown and visited by many celebrities, a showcase among Southern inns. It was advertised as being "situated on the outskirts of one of the prettiest villages in the Southland." The columns are all that is left of the Pine Forest Inn.

7) In 1938 Elizabeth Arden bought a summer home in Summerville South Carolina. The house is located at 208 Sumter Ave. It was built in 1891 for Mr. Samuel Lord, a Charleston attorney. The house was built by A. J. Baird, the man who also constructed the Pine Forest Inn. The house is still standing, but the inn was torn down. Elizabeth Arden sold the house in 1954. It had 15 rooms with 12 foot ceiling.








8) The Canada Geese on Hutchinson Square is part of The Birds in Residence Downtown Summerville Project--a collaborative effort by Summerville DREAM, Sculpture in the South, and the Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest. The B.I.R.D.S. are located throughout Downtown Summerville for you to search out. Maps are available to assist you.







9) Bell Tower next to Town Hall in Downtown Summerville at sunset. I took this picture during a Third Thursday--Summerville's monthly party. Things to see and do around town.

Spring Wednesday Wine Strolls at Middleton Place--Wine-derful

The weather and the setting were perfect. There was but a whisper of a breeze playing on the long branches of the old oaks. The fading sun cast a tranquil shade of pleasant over the beautified gardens--considered the oldest in America. The numerous reflective ponds, alive with the chatter of its amphibious residents, were one with the surroundings. Their mirror like surfaces disturbed only by the watchful eyes of the long-toothed reptiles common to these Lowcountry waters.

Beyond the gated ruins and overlooking the Ashley, the four strategically placed tables were elegantly set, two bottles of vino on each, servers in place. Friends, relatives, acquaintances, and couples with cups in hand soaked in the ambiance and engaged in light conversation as they walked from table to table and strolled the numerous intertwined paths of the plantation landscape. All this courtesy of Middleton Place and its Spring Wednesday Wine Strolls.

Not by any stretch of the imagination am I a wine connoisseur, but I am learning the finer aspects of the grape culture. I have twice indulged in wine tastings in the past two weeks. This by far was a top flight experience made even more rewarding sharing it with family and friends. And wine tends to loosen the lips, so making small talk with fellow imbibers comes as easy as an Ashley River current.

Now, here are some specifics. After checking in, you received a detailed list with the names and descriptions of each wine. There were eight offerings--an obvious fact seeing there were four tables with two selections per table. Actually, six were wines and two were Sangria's. Although the tables were numbered, you are free to take them in any order to suit your tastes.

Maybe, you are partial to a certain varietal or bouquet, you can eliminate one of your least preferred and double up on a favorite. The point is there are no restrictions. You are entitled to eight tastings--your way. We chose to sample them all and according to the list. We figured the person who arranged the list knew what they were doing in regard to when and in what order to sample so as to get the most from the tastings. Crackers were also provided to cleanse the palate.

You have two hours to complete your list, but that does not mean you have to leave. Middleton Place and the Ashley River are beautiful in the setting sun and you get 10 per cent off your dinner at its on-site restaurant.

These were the night's tastings. Table One--Trentino Pinot Grigio, Italy 2012 and Planeta la Segreta Blend, Sicily, Italy 2012-considered a Chardonnay. The Chardonnay was the winner for me at Table One. Table Two--Gancia Moscato D'Asti, Italy 2012 and Bolla le Poiane Valpolicella Ripasso, Italy 2012--70 per cent Corvino and Corvinone. I favored the Moscato. Table Tree--Don and Sons Pinot Noir, Sonoma County 2011 and Aquinas Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2012. I am a Pinot Noir fan because of its healthful qualities. Table Four--Red Sangria and Blonde Sangria. Between the two, I had no opinion.

The whole affair is twenty dollars per person and it is worth every dollar. The night was a perfect blend of weather, scenery, and fermented grapes. Middleton Place is a National Historic Treasure that cooks the imagination. Dowsing the imagination with some wine enhances and strengthens the experience. I will be doing it again. You can wager a bottle of Don and Sons Pinot Noir on it.

Enjoy the beautiful pictures of Middleton Place's Spring Wednesday Wine Stroll.