There's a place about half an hour south of downtown Myrtle Beach that I try to send every single one of my relocating clients to within their first few months here, and it isn't the beach. It's Brookgreen Gardens, and if you haven't been yet, I promise it is not what you're picturing.
It's beautiful, yes. But the reason I push people to go is that it's two stories layered on top of each other, and the second one is the part most visitors walk right past. I'll get to it.
How It Came to Exist
Brookgreen sits on more than 9,000 acres that were once four separate rice plantations: Brookgreen, Laurel Hill, Springfield and the Oaks. In 1930, a wealthy New York couple, Archer Huntington and his wife Anna Hyatt Huntington, bought the land, originally just looking for a quiet retreat where Anna could recover her strength after a tuberculosis diagnosis.
Anna happened to be one of the most accomplished sculptors in the country at the time, and it didn't take long before the plan grew into something much bigger: a garden built specifically to display her work, and the work of other American sculptors. Eighteen months after the purchase, on July 13, 1931, they incorporated Brookgreen as a nonprofit, and it became the first public sculpture garden in America. Today it holds what it describes as the largest and most comprehensive collection of American figurative sculpture in the country.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1700s | Four rice plantations are developed on the land |
| 1850 | Joshua John Ward, owner of Brookgreen Plantation, holds 1,092 people in slavery |
| 1930 | Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington buy more than 9,000 acres, from the Waccamaw River to the ocean |
| 1931 | Brookgreen Gardens is incorporated as a nonprofit |
| 1960 | The oceanfront side, with the Huntingtons' winter home Atalaya, is leased to the state and becomes Huntington Beach State Park |
| 1992 | Brookgreen and Atalaya are designated a National Historic Landmark |
| 2026 | The new Purdy Center welcome center and conservatory gardens open in January |
The History That Came Before the Gardens, and Why It Matters
Here's the second story. This is the part I think is genuinely important to sit with, not just skip past on the way to the sculptures.
Long before the Huntingtons arrived, this land produced enormous wealth through rice, and that wealth was built on the forced labor of enslaved Africans, whose knowledge and skill in growing rice is what made these plantations so profitable in the first place. Brookgreen Plantation was owned by Joshua John Ward, remembered as "the king of the rice planters," who in 1850 held 1,092 people in slavery across his plantations, one of the largest slaveholders in the country. That year his operation produced millions of pounds of rice.
To its credit, Brookgreen doesn't hide this history or gloss over it. The Lowcountry Trail, which has won a South Carolina Heritage Tourism Award, runs along a boardwalk overlooking a restored rice field of the former Brookgreen Plantation. Archaeologists have found the remains of the overseer's house and its outbuildings on that hillside, and interpretive panels lay out daily life on the plantation for the owner, the overseer and the enslaved men and women whose village sat just beyond the crest of the hill. There's also a creek excursion on a pontoon boat that passes the old rice fields while an interpreter talks through the role enslaved Africans played in growing that crop.
It makes the whole experience richer, not heavier, to actually understand the ground you're walking on.
What You'll Spend Your Day Doing There
The gardens themselves are stunning almost any time of year, with sculpture placed thoughtfully throughout a series of garden rooms rather than scattered at random. The Lowcountry Zoo, tucked into the property, isn't the kind of zoo with big exotic animals. It focuses on native animals that were either raised in captivity or were injured badly enough that they couldn't survive in the wild, and it's one of only five zoos and aquariums in South Carolina accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
And there's something brand new: the Purdy Center, Brookgreen's new welcome center and conservatory gardens, which opened in January 2026. If you haven't been in a while, it's a good excuse to go back.
One thing that's changed since some older guides were written: the Whispering Wings butterfly exhibit was badly damaged in a storm in June 2024, so don't plan your visit around it.
| Before you go | |
|---|---|
| Where | 1931 Brookgreen Drive, Murrells Inlet, off US 17 Bypass between Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island |
| Tickets | Daytime admission is good for seven consecutive days, so you don't have to see it all at once |
| Pets | Not allowed, and they can't be left in cars on the property (trained service animals are welcome) |
| Excursion tours | Bought on the day at the gardens, not online |
Admission prices and hours change, so check Brookgreen's website before you head down.
A Quieter Way to Be Part of the Story
One of my favorite things about Brookgreen is how personal it lets you make your connection to it. As a nonprofit, it offers memorial and tribute gifts to honor or remember someone, including dedicating a bench. It's a lovely, understated way to leave a small permanent mark on a place, and I've had more than one client tell me they did something like this for a parent or a spouse after their first visit.
And Then There's Christmas
If you only ever go once, go during Nights of a Thousand Candles. On select evenings the whole garden glows with more than 2,700 hand-lit candles and millions of lights, and it has become one of the true traditions of the Grand Strand holiday season. For 2026, it runs on 21 select nights from November 27 through January 3, from 4 to 9 p.m. Tickets are for specific nights and are sold only through Brookgreen's own website, so plan ahead rather than deciding on a whim in the middle of December.
The Connection Right Next Door
The Huntingtons' original purchase stretched all the way from the Waccamaw River to the Atlantic Ocean. The beachfront side of that same land, including Atalaya, the Moorish-style winter home they built there, became Huntington Beach State Park, just across US 17 from the gardens. The two share a history and a founding family, and a full day is easy to spend moving between both. (I've written up Huntington Beach and Myrtle Beach State Park side by side if you want the beach half of the plan.)
If you've moved here and haven't been yet, put it on the calendar. It's one of those rare places that manages to be genuinely beautiful, quietly educational, and a little bit moving, all in the same afternoon.
Thinking about making the move to the Grand Strand?
Whether you're relocating from up north or planning your retirement on the South Carolina coast, I'd love to help you get there. Follow me on Facebook for more local tips, search Grand Strand listings right here on my site, and join one of my Facebook groups built specifically for people making this move:
