The Legare Waring House Garden is a moss-laden ancient avenue of oaks, crystal lagoons, and year-round brilliance of flowers. Steeped in history, this beautiful property is located in the heart of Charles Towne Landing, the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Carolinas. Ferdinanda Izlar Legare Backer Waring transformed the raw natural landscape into one of Charleston’s best-loved suburban gardens. The Legare Waring House at Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site, Charleston’s hidden gem, is unique not only for its beauty but also for its rich history.  

The home was built in the 1840s, the modest two-story cottage was a part of Old Towne Plantation. By 1865, after the burning of the plantation’s great house during the Civil War, this structure became the most significant shelter on the property for the beleaguered Parker and Legare families. In the 1930s, Ferdinanda Izlar Legare Backer Waring became the sole owner of Old Town Plantation and the last of nine families to own the property. Moving into the house by the 1950s, she and her husband Joseph Ioor Waring transformed the house into an elegant early representation of an antebellum plantation home. Expanding it to three times its original size, it became a quaint home and an entertainer’s dream. By the late 1980s, with Mr. and Mrs. Waring’s passing, their daughter, Nancy Stevenson (former Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina) recommended the home as a Charleston residence for the sitting Governor. Since that time, it has hosted South Carolina’s first families, national officials, and international dignitaries. It is a favorite venue for weddings throughout the year. 

Together with the Friends of Charles Towne Landing, our members have planted azaleas, camellias, roses, crepe myrtles, and daffodils throughout the park. Members have also improved the soil and refreshed plantings around the Legare-Waring House and refurbished Christopher’s Garden which is near the house. 

Today, members maintain the garden beds immediately adjacent to the house and its driveway along with the beds in Christopher’s Garden.  This work includes weeding, pruning, fertilizing and, when required, removing and installing plants.