The 20th Century

Miss Charlotta's wish

Some oral history records indicate that Charles Henry Drayton and his family used Drayton Hall for weekend and summer visits to the country, while others indicate that they lived at Drayton Hall toward the end of the 19th century. Charles and his wife Eliza had four children: three daughters and a son, also named Charles. Of the daughters it was Charlotta Drayton who seemed to have the strongest feeling for the house. She spent several weeks at a time at Drayton Hall, and the only modern conveniences she installed were a wood-burning stove and an icebox that was later replaced by a refrigerator, powered through an extension cord plugged in at the Victorian caretaker’s cottage.

In the 1930s, Charlotta made the last changes to Drayton Hall before the National Trust purchased the property, painting two rooms a light yellow with brown trim and rebuilding the portico, which had partially collapsed into the raised English basement at some point in the 1920s, using cement, along with white marble pavers from Georgia and limestone and sandstone pavers salvaged from the original portico floor. In the 1930s, her brother Charles experimented briefly with tourism, opening the house to the public and conducting tours himself.

Charlotta Drayton paid her last visit to the house in the 1960s. In her will, she left her share of Drayton Hall to her two nephews, Charles Henry Drayton III and Francis Drayton, both of whom already owned a quarter share from their father. A provision in her will asked Charles and Frank not to modernize or make any major changes to the house.

After thoughtful consideration of the ever-increasing costs to maintain their ancestral home, Charles and Frank Drayton decided to sell the house and 125 acres to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the remaining acreage to the state of South Carolina. Historic Charleston Foundation spearheaded the campaign to raise funds for the purchase of Drayton Hall, and Miss Sally Reahard of Indianapolis, Indiana made a major donation to secure the Trust's purchase, which was completed in 1974.