Really good architecture

Drayton Hall, Charleston, SC
1738

I am biased. I admit. Give me a good Palladian home anyday.  Isabelle was at Drayton Hall today - outside of Charleston and sent me this shot from her phone. I have toured Drayton Hall; in fact I did a photo shoot there when I was designing clothing in Charleston waaaaay back when....1980????

This is my favorite piece of architecture in this country. (Okay....that I have seen.)

Period. 

It was in the Drayton family from the day they started building it in 1738.  In 1974, the family sold the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. There's the KEY WORD: PRESERVATION. Not restoration. It is being preserved in this exquisite state of decay so that we may see original finishes dating to the early18th Century. 

It is the oldest surviving example of Georgian Palladian architecture in the US and one of the few PRE-REVOLUTIONARY homes that remain close to original condition. It makes me weep. In a good way.

I really, really like the Guggenheim. 

But I feel love, feel amour, or the Italian amore about Drayton Hall. I feel love in all languages about Drayton Hall. If I could live in one home in the US, this would be it. Filled with modern furniture. :-)

Here's more for you architecture wackos like me - this is a LOVELY video of the interiors. Check out the paneling, mouldings and colors!

http://www.draytonhall.org/overview/introduction.html