Preston Cooley named house manager at Magnolia Gardens
June 5, 2011
CHARLESTON, SC – June 3, 2011 – Magnolia Plantation and Gardens has announced that Preston Cooley has been named manager of the main house, a nine-room Victorian-style mansion that reflects Charleston society following the Civil War.
Cooley joined the Magnolia staff in January 2009 as a museum educator with Magnolia’s “Slavery to Freedom Project,” which interprets the contributions of African Americans at Magnolia.
A native of the Anderson County community of Williamston, Cooley earned a history degree from the College of Charleston in 2004. After college, he and his wife, Bonnie Cooley, operated Charleston Church Tours in the historic district. Tom Johnson, Magnolia’s director of gardens, said, “I’ve never met a person who loves history as much as Preston. His addition at the house will raise that tour to another level of enjoyment for our visitors.”
Filled with the possessions of generations of the Drayton family, the house has evolved from a modest pre-Revolutionary War hunting cottage built on the burned-out first floor and steps of a second house that was destroyed during the Civil War.
As the house manager, Cooley supervises a staff of 13 interpreters who lead 30-minute tours through the house daily. “During the tours, we try to convey to the public the importance of the Draytons in American history, and that the house is indicative of post-Civil War Charleston.”
After the war, Charleston changed drastically, Cooley said. Charleston is known for tourism and that industry started at Magnolia when the Rev. John Drayton in 1870 opened the gardens adjacent to the house. The gardens, Cooley explained, was a way for the family to survive the post-war economy that nearly wiped out the their fortune.
After the war, the Draytons sold other property and the household items at other plantations were moved to Magnolia. The furniture and other items in the house tell the family’s story, he added.
For example, Col. William Drayton, a veteran of the War of 1812, who served in the U.S. Congress and later became a pro-slavery Unionist, left Charleston during the war to relocate in Philadelphia. When he and his family moved, their possessions included an 80-piece china set from 1790 that has since been returned to house at Magnolia.
Cooley said he also reminds house interpreters to tell visitors the Draytons did not live alone at Magnolia. At the time of the Civil War, about 47 black people worked in the house and grounds.
“I encourage them to talk about the enslaved community,” he said. “When we mention the china we should mention the people who served the food on the china.”
After the war black gardeners also influenced the design of azaleas beds at Magnolia, which is the first garden in the country to plant azaleas outside.
