Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
The Building Business podcast provides compelling stories of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce's journey, its steadfast commitment to the local community, and its forward-thinking approach to addressing the needs of businesses in an ever-changing landscape. It stands as an invitation to listeners to become part of a movement that values growth, connection, and the collective progress of the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina community.
Be prepared to be inspired, informed, and motivated, as we provide a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the dynamic interplay of business and personal growth right here, in our own backyard.
Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Preserving the Legacy: A Journey Through Boone Hall's Past, Present, and Future with Jim Westerhold
Imagine stepping onto the grounds of Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens, enveloped by the whispers of history and the echoes of stories untold. Today's conversation with Jim Westerhold, the General Manager of this historic Charleston landmark, along with co-hosts Kathi Herrmann and Scott Labarowski, is a journey that began with a serendipitous summer job and led to a lifelong dedication to the preservation of a site steeped in American history. Like a scene from "The Notebook," Boone Hall captures hearts, and Jim invites us into a world where the past is not just remembered—it's actively preserved and honored.
Our exploration with Jim doesn't just stay rooted in the past; it branches out to the vibrant present of Boone Hall, a place where the community gathers in celebration and education. As we traverse the lush gardens and catch the harmonious strains of Gullah performances, it's clear that Boone Hall is more than a place—it's a living legacy, intertwining the joys of today with the rich tapestry of its history. Boone Hall hosts everything from the oyster festival to Fright Nights.
Looking toward the horizon, Boone Hall's future is as fertile as its fields, with plans of nurturing both land and community. In this episode, we touch on the plantation's dedication to local agriculture and the ways in which fostering historical knowledge can root us more deeply in our own lives. So, join us on this walk through time, across the grounds of Boone Hall, as we uncover the threads that connect us all through history, culture, and the timeless pursuit of knowledge. Jim's story is a testament to the power of passion and the importance of every individual's role in shaping and sharing our collective heritage.
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Foundation Chair
John Carroll | Co-host | Member at Large
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Scott Labarowski | Co-host | Membership Chair
Jennifer Maxwell | Co-host | Immediate Past President
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
Well, hello and welcome to the Building Business Podcast powered by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. We are here recording in the Charleston Radio Group studios with our friend, brian Cleary. Thank you, brian, for all you do for us and all Charleston Radio Group does for us. As a supporter of the chamber, my name is Kathy Herman, I am your current president of the Mount Pleasant Chamber and I am also the marketing director at Mount Pleasant Town Center. So thank you all so much for joining us. I'm here today with my co-host, scott Labrowski. He is the current membership chair for the chamber. So, scott, introduce yourself and say hello.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I'm the current membership chair for the chamber and I've got a small independent insurance company. Well fantastic Home and auto and business and all the good stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, this is your first co-chair with me. Absolutely we are very excited to have you here, Scott. I'm more excited. I am more excited to have our special guest today. I have to tell you we have an incredible, incredible guest here in the studio Jim Westerhold, the general manager of Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens. Thank you for coming today, jim.
Speaker 3:It is a pleasure. Thank you for having me. This is also my first time on radio and soott and I'll try not to mess this up for you okay.
Speaker 1:Well, you know I've been doing this for a little while, so I'll make sure that you guys, you know we keep it on track, but I'm going to start you. I I'm so excited to talk to you about boone hall. One thing I want to tell you, though, jim, is that I've been here eight years. Anytime anybody comes to visit me for the first time, anytime they're in Charleston, the first thing that we do is we go to Boone Hall.
Speaker 3:That's the way to do it.
Speaker 1:It's, without question, our first stop for anyone who ever comes here, and when people leave there, I mean I think they've changed. I honestly think they've changed and that's thanks to you and your team. So we're going to get to that in a second. All about how important Boone Hall is to the area, but tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved to be the general manager of Boone Hall.
Speaker 3:Well, it's great to hear, and so to get to answer that question, I need to talk about this gentleman by the name of Willie McRae, and who doesn't know Willie McRae?
Speaker 3:That's right. And so in answering that question, I'll tell you Willie, who was one, when his parents bought this property in 1955, so 738 acres, which is now right in the middle of 100,000 people, that community we know of Mount Pleasant. So I got to know him and he opened up, and his family opened up, boone Hall to tourism, and so all thanks go to Willie and his family. They're a great family, but I call Willie up. I started teaching in Georgetown when our daughter was very young and I wanted my, because I wanted my summers free, and so I started teaching at a technical college in Georgetown and so, um, after about two weeks of being home with her, and in the summer I wanted to go back to work for a farm. I grew up on a farm, always worked on a farm, and so I call, I sent a blank email into Boone Hall Farms and didn't expect anything, but within the hour this gentleman by the name of Willie called me and said let's go riding around.
Speaker 3:And so we did. We rode around and he pointed out certain tasks for me to take care of and I did. Um, I'd kind of uh, dawdle around there and do odds and ends in the summers for 12 years, um was it a part-time gig?
Speaker 3:it was a part-time gig just in the summers he called me um sporadically to do with some other things as well. But it was about two months in after I got to know Willie, before I really knew who he was. He was that kind of a humble gentleman, sir, and so he never let on that he was the main owner, and so I got to know him.
Speaker 3:I got to know him first, and then, unfortunately, as he was dying in early 2020, he offered me this job of general manager, and so since then, I started in May. Unfortunately, he died in April of 2020.
Speaker 1:I started in May of 2020.
Speaker 3:Wow, oh, wow, and we'll talk more about Willie as we go on here and what the McCrays have done for this community, but that's how I ended up at Boone Hall.
Speaker 1:So did you work there all those years in between?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes. So I've been a summer employee for 12 years and then my recent gig as general manager for the last four Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:And you like farmed, did you farm?
Speaker 3:Well, I would do other odds and ends. There was always a lead farmer. Did you farm? Well, I would do other odds and ends.
Speaker 3:There was always a lead farmer um, and I would always help them and help, help do other odds and ends and help them um occasionally, and you know it's. You know one day a week or a couple days a week, but but the real, um the real and willie never paid me and I never accepted um anything. For me it was a treasure just to be able to pull in off the highway 17 gate and drive on a dirt road. Absolutely, our daughter, who was just a young girl at the time, we had a habit of as soon as we pulled off the 17 gate, she would, she knew what to do. She would climb up out of her car seat, she would unbuckle herself and climb up out of the car seat and sit in my lap and steer and we'd put in um. We'd put in um, we'd put in John Denver country roads.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:And that was our habit, and so, um, for me that was so rewarding to be able to access that property that way, and I I wish every child in Mount Pleasant had an ability to drive around on a on a country road. Every country dirt road.
Speaker 1:I have enjoyed taking the tractor rides.
Speaker 3:Those are fun. That's one of the best tours that we give and that gives all of our tourists for the historical side who are mostly from out of town. 90% of those folks on the historical side are from out of town, out of state, out of the country, and so to put them on a tractor-pulled wagon and then give them a guided tour around for the farm really is one of our best tours.
Speaker 2:One of my best memories is when I brought my daughter when she was little little. Now she's 21 years old, so for many years it's, you know, doing the tractor pull going through the cornfields in the fall.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. And you know, on the farm side, with the farm festivals, those are opportunities for the community, the Mount Pleasant community and the greater Charleston area, to come out and enjoy those days on the farm. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And for those that might be semi-new to the Mount Pleasant area, something that you said before made me laugh is you see this beautiful farm in the middle of Mount Pleasant on 17. It is actually a working farm.
Speaker 3:No doubt about it. No doubt about it. It is not like the rest of Mount Pleasant and most of us celebrate that. There are some folks out there that, for some reason or another, don't like the look of a farm, but it is definitely a working farm.
Speaker 1:They should move back to New York City then, or something who doesn't want a farm in the middle of their town.
Speaker 3:They're still our community, but it is quite different. We have over 150 neighbors and we are significantly different than all of them.
Speaker 1:And can you tell everybody a little bit about because I'm a little bit naive about this but nothing will ever be built on Boone Hall ever. So people driving by there are not going to be condos or houses or anything ever built. How did that process happen?
Speaker 3:That's right. Well, thank you for asking. So that goes way back to conversations with Willie, and he had other conversations with other individuals as well that were very important in him making the decision, but every now and then, willie would bring up the fact this is going back 16 years that the building pressures around Boone Hall are starting to grow and grow and the traffic is starting to become a problem, and Willie didn't like that, and he was worried about what would become a boon hall down the road, and I'd always remind Willie that there was a tool called a conservation easement, which is a deed restriction, and Willie'd listen for about three seconds and then move on to another subject, and then, as years went on, though, he'd become more and more open to this thing called conservation easement. So, yeah, he died in April of 2020, but in November of 19,. He, along with his sister, elizabeth, did put the property in a conservation easement, and in doing so, they themselves wrote restrictions on future uses of this property, and one such restriction is that we'll never have paved roads.
Speaker 3:I love that Another restriction is that we'll never have any more than five houses on 738 acres Wow. We are also constrained by the amount of impervious surfaces we have. We can build a little bit more, but not a lot more. So if a building is taken down by a hurricane, you go, we can rebuild that building and we can rebuild it a little bit larger, but we can't build them all larger and we can't add on another one, and so we are restricted in the amount of roof space or concrete that we have. And so you're right, it'll never be able to know?
Speaker 1:Is there a time constraint on this, Jim, or is it forever?
Speaker 3:Forever, that is the best time constraint ever, yeah this is forever, and that's really important, and I wish everyone in our community knew what that meant and what it really means is, kathy, you can bring your children, grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren to Boone Hall, and they'll always get the same experience There'll always be a strawberry festival, there'll always be a pumpkin patch, and so the history. While we have so much history at Boone Hall over 300 years of history think about how long forever is from now, and so I even think our future is brighter than our history and we're gonna, we're certainly going to talk about that okay, great scott, didn't you have a question?
Speaker 1:oh no, I was actually listening, I was enjoying it he threw me a curve I threw you you a curve.
Speaker 2:Yes, you did.
Speaker 1:I wanted to hear your voice.
Speaker 2:So we're talking about the landmarks. You know, preserving a historical landmark often includes delicate balance between conservation and education. How does Boone Hall approach the balance?
Speaker 3:Yeah, good question.
Speaker 3:Well, part of the education is the conservation easement and the preservation and letting everyone know that drives down that beautiful avenue, that they can come back in future generations and experience just what they're seeing. And so part of it is education, and that falls on us to make sure everybody in the community appreciates what Boone Hall and what Boone Hall will maybe never be or will always be for the future. And so we, as far as education goes, we work with other partners. For example, the Low Country Land Trust holds that easement, and they're a local organization that holds that conservation easement and supports our efforts in keeping that property the way it is. And so we also have an education director that takes in many school groups and tries to do the best we can with educating school groups as well.
Speaker 2:Can you talk a little bit about the houses and what is there, because we talk about two sides. We know about the working farm aspect, but can you speak a little bit about what's actually else on the property?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll do my best to describe it, although my words and even a picture doesn't paint it the best way it can be painted. The best way is to come visit. But a visitor on the historic side would drive down the avenue.
Speaker 3:But a visitor on the historic side would drive down the avenue, which includes live oak trees that age back to 1743 and a three-quarter mile driveway. But along the left-hand side of that driveway, as they approach the center area, there are nine original enslaved cabins that date back to 1790 and they're made out of brick, and that's likely the only reason they're still in existence is because they are made out of brick. There's also um just to just behind the enslaved cabins is a, a building called the cotton dock right, and a lot of many parties there at the cotton goals have come to the cotton dock.
Speaker 3:It's definitely an event space. Uh, historically that would have been the location where all the products and produce raised on the farm would have been loaded on a barge at high tide and then taken to Charleston, so that would have been a main port Interesting. And then there's also on the left, near the enslaved cabins, is a smokehouse that dates back to the 1750s. It's also made out of brick. Most people don't see that unless they're on a tour, but as you drive up that avenue most people are focused then on the house that was a centerpiece of the movie the Notebook.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're going to talk about that.
Speaker 3:We're in north and south, but the house was built by a previous owner, the Stones, in the 1930s mid-1930s, and so it's not an original house. It's still very, very iconic, though in the picture.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And then off to the right are Visitors Park. But they will also see and now go into our newly rejuvenated gin house Not the kind of gin where we can give out samples. In this case, gin is short for engine, and so it was a cotton engine, which we have reduced it down to just cotton gin, and so that building was built in probably the 1850s and Willie had restaurants in there and gift shops in there until 2006 when it was condemned.
Speaker 3:Two years ago. We started restoration on that and have just recently opened up the gin house. And then there's a cafe. There are stables as well. All of these things are part of our tours that are included with admission.
Speaker 2:You talk about the age of the different properties. Um, probably takes a lot of money. Is there ongoing maintenance that you have to? Uh, that is it that is it.
Speaker 3:Wow, you've hit on um on a tough subject for us, the. The cost of maintenance has gone through the roof recently, wow, and it has to be done in a specific way.
Speaker 1:It can't just be like oh, let's just, you know, slap some cedar plank on the side of that house it has to be, specific restorations, I'm assuming absolutely so.
Speaker 3:For example, with the brick in the gin house built um you know, every one of those bricks for the gin house were made by hand by the enslaved right there on the property in the mid-1800s or before then. Um, the new mortar we use portland cement is harder than the brick and so if you use the the easy to use and and very economical, usable mortar, it'll break the brick wow oh wow, you have to use special mortar, for example.
Speaker 3:That's just one example, and so the expense of that gin house was very, very expensive but it was done in the right way.
Speaker 2:Do you do a lot of your own maintenance in house? We do.
Speaker 3:We do, but mostly on the contract with a special company we do, we do both, and so our maintenance staff mostly is taking care of the roads, the grounds, so to speak. We have a garden staff also that takes care of the gardens, and they do a fabulous, fabulous job, but when it comes to historic structures we farm that out now how.
Speaker 2:How many employees are on staff? Um about 100 all employees or volunteers, or both.
Speaker 3:We have zero and zero volunteers. Okay, we would take volunteers for guided tours and those kind of things. We need them to show up when they need to show up. We need them to be dependable. We have not had much luck with volunteers showing up just whenever they want to and so we'll take volunteers, but for the most part we pay. I'll pay Because we need them to show up when they show up.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite aspects of my tour and again, I've gone multiple, multiple times and I will continue to go is that live Gullah Geechee. I want to make sure I say it correctly what is the actual name of the show?
Speaker 3:Gullah Gullah Show. The live Gullah Show.
Speaker 1:It had my sister-in-law, who doesn't get affected by anything in tears. I've never seen her like that before by anything in tears of. I've never seen her like that before.
Speaker 2:I think it actually changed her to be a nicer person if you're listening Arlene and um but that is an experience, um, that is just you have.
Speaker 1:You have got to go see that. And how did that come about?
Speaker 3:yeah, absolutely. Um, quite an experience. Um Willie brought that about um many, many decades ago and it is the only daily live Gullah show you can see in Charleston and we have right now three shows a day and they are all packed.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, besides our Farm and Nature Tour, the tractor wagon ride around the property. The Gullah show is the hit is the hit, no doubt about it. And most people come in and say we want to see the gula or goal or that. You know, they don't know how to pronounce it, but but it's gala and and when they learn what it means and how it, how gala is still a culture that is very alive in charleston, it it makes um all the meeting worthwhile.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was absolutely incredible, the first one I saw. I was just completely blown away and, like I said, some people come down like I don't want to sit through this. I'm like, listen, you have to understand something. You are not coming to Charleston and visiting Boone Hall and not sitting down for this. And then, of course, at the end they're like oh, thank you so much for making me see this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, end, they're like oh, thank you so much for making me see this. Yeah, the gulla show is a hit and um. All I can say is that you have to to do it. I can't sing like they can, I can't um speak gulla like they can you have to experience it from um, from a gulla performer very, very moving experience.
Speaker 1:You know one of the first times.
Speaker 2:when I went to boone hall, I went for the wine festival yes, um, and I drove down this road with beautiful oak trees. I said, oh, there's a house, and that made me come back to explore more of the property. What other activities do you have during the course of the?
Speaker 3:year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great Great question.
Speaker 3:So we get that very commonly. The local community will come out for our festivals and come out for Wine Under the Oaks. The challenge is to get them to come back during the rest of the year and we just started well, we just ended, but this was the first year we did Black History Month, oh, wow, and mostly because the gin house was finished and downstairs in the gin house is a museum. We spent a lot of money but our museum we're really, really proud of, and upstairs is the event space.
Speaker 3:We opened it up for the month of february, black history month, and led another organization, john wright, from the african-american we know john very well everybody knows john right um planned and organized activities and events the whole month of february in the black and uh the gin house for February in the Black History Month, and we just let them take hold of it and do it the way, john, we know John would do it and it was fabulous.
Speaker 3:It was well, well done, and so that's another example of how we're trying to get more locals out to come experience Boone Hall. And going back to Black History Month, yeah, I can't give John enough praises. They did a fantastic job. It was included. So those exhibits were included with our admission. The way we do everything. Everything's included with admission. Even the drive down that avenue is included with admission. And then we gave some of the proceeds back to their main project, which is the Long Point Schoolhouse, which is another fabulous project that we're happy to be partners with.
Speaker 1:Well, I've been to Fright Night. Fright Nights, that was really fun that first time. But, I'm actually a scaredy cat, believe it or not. I don't like horror movies and I don't like being scared. And I was really scared, jim. I really was scared. But, I had a good time, so if you have not been to Fright Nights, those are really fun.
Speaker 2:I like the old car that they put out front.
Speaker 1:Oh right, Is it a hearse?
Speaker 2:It's a hearse, yes.
Speaker 1:My favorite part is the tractor rides in the back at night.
Speaker 2:So we have the pumpkin patch, we have the strawberry festival.
Speaker 1:Which is happening.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the strawberry festival is coming up the first two weekends in April. That's great. April 5th, 6th and 7th, and the 12th, 13th and 14th the first two weekends. It used to be just one weekend, but we couldn't provide the quality of service we needed to provide, and so we opened it up for two weekends of service we needed to provide, and so we opened it up for two weekends. This is the 28th year this festival will happen and so, um, you know, back to traditions and traditions and thinking about how long is forever.
Speaker 3:We will now have children that came to some of those first strawberry festivals that are bringing their children yep, and and and again, I have to say that they'll be able to bring their children and grandchildren back to the 50th and the 60th and the 80th strawberry festival so how many people in that weekend for the strawberry festival do you think will go through the doors?
Speaker 3:yeah, a few thousand, and we you know I'm not I'm gonna stay away from from exact numbers, but a few thousand, yeah, and we want every one of them to go out there and pick a strawberry. That's really the reward of having a strawberry festival is having those children engage with learning more about where their food comes from, and so we're a little bit worried about especially the community of Mount Pleasant. If you ask a teenager where their food comes from these days, they would say the grocery stores.
Speaker 1:No, they come from Willie's Market everybody, okay, willie's Market, go visit Willie.
Speaker 3:We're going to be a farm forever Remember the conservation easement and in doing so, we need all future generations to appreciate farms and not just the grocery store. And so we want every child that visits Strawberry Festival out there picking their own strawberries and eating the strawberries out of the field.
Speaker 1:Yes, and having that on their face and having the juice coming down their chin.
Speaker 3:Those are experiences that are so rewarding for us.
Speaker 1:One thing I love, too, is you guys have done an amazing job to me of giving the community such a different array of events. So you have all the children events, and then you've got the Oyster Festival, and then you've got the Wine Festival, and then you've got the Fright Night. So you have everything for the adults, everything for the kids, everything for the families Just a great, great schedule of events.
Speaker 3:It is. We're really excited about those. Of course we have great partners to help us with all those events. I mentioned um john ryan, african american settlement community helping us with black history month. Of course we have charleston radio group that helps us with that, partners with us for one of the oaks and um we have other sponsors. I don't know if I can mention sponsor other sponsors but um, um star Starling Chevrolet helps us tremendously.
Speaker 3:One of my favorite people, yeah they sponsor and have been sponsoring our farm events the Pumpkin Patch and the Strawberry Festival and so we don't do this by ourselves, obviously, and we do have a wide range of events and with each one of them we're trying to find a way of giving back to the community along with making sure the property is used but then left better for the next time. We have a festival, for example, the oyster festival, which is really not our event is it's held the Boone hall, but it's another partner is the Charleston um restaurant foundation. Um holds that event and that's a charity event and so obviously big in oysters. So this year we're going to take some of those recycled oysters and build a new oyster reef right there on the side of Boone Hall on the back lawn, and so it's a great opportunity to have future oyster festivals and then give back and promote the property and make sure the property is in a better state, moving forward.
Speaker 1:Well, I remember when I first moved here, my first event for Town Center this would have been in April of 2016. I did a I believe it was Fido Fester. It was one of my dog events, but I was new I'd only been here three months, so I did not know to not have an event on the same day that Boone Hall was having an event.
Speaker 2:That's a no-no, and so, um, that was a huge I learned fast, scott.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what. You can't even get down 17. I learned fast, um. Not only that, but nobody was at my event, because everybody was at the strawberry festival because we did it in april so I learned so now and we get you know and it's fun.
Speaker 1:We've actually had. I've had conversations with the marketing team before Jim about you know, because I have really big events and you have really big events and the first thing I do is I'll look and I'll say when is he not having an event, when are they not having an event? And that's when I'll book mine.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's pretty smart. Yeah, we want the whole community to come out and you know I've heard this before. When I started this job four years ago, I heard about the downside of our events with traffic.
Speaker 3:There's traffic everywhere we think we've gotten much better at that, but I ask everyone just to have patience. During those few days we have festivals, because that's how the property is going to be used to maintain itself. Instead of, the alternative would be Willie selling this property for development, and then we'd have traffic, bad, bad traffic the other 350 days out of the year, and so we just ask for some patience, I think you do a really great job.
Speaker 1:I've seen a change because I have to pass you to go to work every day, and I've seen a change during um. I mean just with the police officers there and the signage it's always very smooth, very, very, very smooth so let those those people that complain jim just ignore them that's all I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 3:well, listen, we we've um another one of our great partners who actually does fright night, puts on all fright night, but they have on the wall a lot of other logistics for us also as live productions, and they do a fantastic job with traffic and pedestrian control and they put on a fabulous Fright Night, a fabulous, fabulous Fright Night. They do all that, almost all themselves, and they do a great job.
Speaker 2:I've been there many times picking up my daughter. I'd drive in, wait for her to come out and then drive right back out. Did she have fun? Hell, she had a blast. She's always told me daddy, I want to go work, I want to go work. I say no problem, I'll drive you there and that's all that happens I want to do it, but I just never go so what are some of your?
Speaker 2:you know we're talking about giving back in the community, into these events. What's on your radar in terms of the future? What are some things that you're looking to, uh, to do as a general manager?
Speaker 3:yeah, thank you. Um, well, some things we just recently done, um, that we that are in the process of starting to give back. So the black history month and giving back to the long point schoolhouse we've already been a big supporter of long point schoolhouse. That that's our neighboring settlement community, so we want to be good neighbors. We're starting to grow. I'm pretty excited about this. We're starting to grow sweetgrass Now.
Speaker 3:Sweetgrass is growing really everywhere in a horticultural setting. It's a beautiful, beautiful plant. It went to flowers in October.
Speaker 3:However, when it's growing in a horticultural setting which is what I've learned, and I've had the tremendous opportunity to learn a lot, and so I'm so blessed but what I've learned from Corey Alston, who is a major and highly recognized sweetgrass basket maker that sweetgrass, if it's grown with fertilizer or irrigation, is not good material for baskets. And so, under his advice, we're growing sweetgrass now in more of a natural wild setting. We're starting to get established, but in another year or two, that material will be harvested by basket makers for free right here in the Charleston area, which is one of those restrictions on the Sweetgrass Basket. And you know, going back to Gullah, the Sweetgrass Basket, there's no other key element that I think of that's still left behind. That's tangible than the Sweetgrass Basket, and so it's very important that we carry on that culture, and so Boone Hall is just trying to be a part of that. There is Willie's Market, and we haven't talked much about Willie's Market but it just opened last Monday.
Speaker 2:Willie's.
Speaker 3:Market is that beautiful building out on Highway 17,. And that's where we're selling all of our local produce.
Speaker 2:My wife sends me there all the time.
Speaker 3:That's our community.
Speaker 2:Good, she says, come on my wife loves to cook and she'll say we've got to keep it local.
Speaker 3:We just opened up you Pick Strawberries today, and so you Pick Strawberries will happen, and so again, that's part of the education and Willie's. Market is an outreach for us to get out there on Highway 17 and to promote the farm and to let everybody know the farm is there.
Speaker 2:What's in Willie's Market. Mainly produce. Mainly produce the freshest produce, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:The freshest produce, Absolutely. I love the way. I love the new building too. I that was a beautiful construction.
Speaker 2:It just looks.
Speaker 1:It looks like it belongs right where it is Right I, that's how I feel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're excited. That has a story as well, and so that was built originally in Mount Pleasant in uh, I think in 2018, 19,. Taken back down. It's all mortise and peg kind of kind of old school construction and um, it was taken down in Mount Pleasant. Owner didn't like it, sold to um this lady in Hendersonville, north Carolina. She let it sit on trailers for two years and then we found out about it in 2022, bought it, shipped it back down here and put, put it back up. And there we are with that building.
Speaker 1:Wait, it was up somewhere else.
Speaker 3:It was up, it was in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 1:It was in Mount Pleasant, not at Boone Hall.
Speaker 3:Taken down, okay, shipped into Hendersonville, north Carolina.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have to think about where I've seen that building before you wouldn't have been able to see it.
Speaker 3:It was off the highway.
Speaker 1:And then fortunately she never did put it up in Hendersonville, North Carolina, it was in Kathy's backyard With all of my fresh produce. No, not me, I have to go. I go to Willie's to get my fresh produce.
Speaker 3:We are really excited about that building.
Speaker 2:You know, before we started we were talking about everybody knows the old Red Barn building. Yes, speak to that.
Speaker 3:And that came about. I thought that was very interesting. We still get questions about that, um, all the time. And you're talking about it was called boone hall farms market on the east side of highway 17. Um, and, and that building was leased by boone hall and then the lease was not renewed in um 2020, right, and so, um, we decided to move that business, minus the restaurant, back over on our side and call it Willie's, so now it's Willie's Roadside Produce Market, and you refurbished a barn.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's right. Refurbished a barn.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. So another tidbit that most people who live here should know because I'm going to go back to the movies now is that everyone's favorite the Notebook. And I don't care if you I mean you had to love that movie. Everybody loves the Notebook. Don't shake your head at me, brian. I know everybody loves the Notebook Was filmed at Boone Hall and I mean that's really big for people who love that movie so much and love that book. But apparently there's other movies that have been filmed there that I don't know about, so you need to share those with us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and so again, I invite our visitors to go inside the gin house. We have our marketing directors, rick Penthaw, and he's been working on this two minute movie of all of the scenes from the Notebook, north and South, and Queen and a few others, wheel of Fortune a part of Wheel of Fortune was filmed out there and some others, but he has all of the highlights of those movies and Hollywood shrunk into two minutes, playing over and over and over in our gin house, and so our visitors can come see those special highlights from those movies.
Speaker 3:Oh, I need to do that, and then and then come out and see the grounds where some of those things were filmed. And so, yeah, the notebook. Obviously people know about the notebook and they're crazy about the notebook. I was giving a tour. Occasionally on a good day I get out and give a tour and I was doing a farm nature tour. So I was on the wagon with a group of 45 people and we passed by one of the scenes in the notebook and I said I said, has it? Have any men on this wagon seen the movie, the notebook? And this guy raised his hand. You know, most, most times women are like raise your hand you've watched.
Speaker 1:You've watched it with me, honey. I know you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah but this guy tells me that all the time all over it.
Speaker 3:And so, um, when we got back, we got back down the ground and he approached me and said that's my wife's favorite movie. He took off his wedding ring and had the notebook inscribed in his wedding ring. Oh, wow, he said we're on our one year anniversary and I I'm surprised her with this trip to charleston to show her all the scenes of the Notebook. Wow, and so the Notebook.
Speaker 1:Where's he? What a romantic guy. I love that.
Speaker 2:I was just glad to be around and to be alive after my first year of marriage.
Speaker 3:The Notebook is something special for sure, but North and South was filmed there as well. And then the movie Queen and Queen is Alex Haley's sequel to Roots and probably best known for introducing Halle Berry to the rest of the world, that's right, well one tidbit.
Speaker 2:My brother is a movie producer up in Charlotte and comes to Charleston and has looked at that property to do different things over the years. Nothing's ever materialized on it.
Speaker 3:Bring them on. Yeah, got another notebook, the sequel. Oh on, yeah, got another notebook, the sequel oh, wow. No, I'm just saying I don't know. Bring them on the sequel.
Speaker 1:For some reason that movie just I mean reigns in so many women's hearts because it's just such a love story and I'm honored that it was filmed here.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think it's so much fun.
Speaker 2:How many filmed here. I mean, I think it's so much fun how many people go through the gates. We talked about the attendance on the one side, but at the other.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, again, I can't share um numbers, but we are pretty busy right now. Slowest usually january, and then right now is definitely a big upswing with the, the warmer weather and the zayas right and then, um, it's still being colder in northern climates. But we're right there where everybody wants. This is a chamber of commerce kind of time of year.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And what about wildlife, Jim? Is there wildlife on the farm?
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you. So that's my background. Thank you for asking. Yeah, I'm traditionally a wildlife biologist. I grew up on a farm and been a wildlife biologist. I have a master's degree in wildlife management. I'm not doing much wildlife management now, but that's what I taught in college before this job, and so wildlife is definitely something I don't get to talk about very often. So, kathy, thank you.
Speaker 1:I love animals. That's my problem.
Speaker 3:Bald eagles. We have a pair of bald eagles. They do mate for life, and so they've been using the same nest on Boone Hall for the last now eight years, and they always raise at least one or two eaglets every year. Right now they have one eaglet and that eaglet is about to bust out of the nest. That eaglet's standing on the nest.
Speaker 1:Do you see them or is there a camera on them?
Speaker 3:We don't have a camera on those.
Speaker 1:But you actually see the nest.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can see the nest. And the pair of mature bald eagles. The mom and dad are around. They're often feeding their young, but the young, the eaglet, is almost full grown and we'll fledge the nest in another few weeks. But it won't get a white head and white tail until they become sexually mature themselves.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 3:But that same pair will come back. Hopefully they come back next year and the year after that and the nest just stays there, waits for them that nest, that's right, um.
Speaker 3:Speaking of cameras, though, and nest, we do have cameras on bluebird boxes, and so we have three, three bluebird boxes that will also nest bluebirds this time of year, in early spring, in april, and we have cameras on those, and that that's a live feed from our website. We have alligators, of course, that are easily seen um. My daughter and I built the first alligator float, and so all it is is a float with some wood, kind of like a dock, what we would use a floating dock, but we built it just for alligators and stake it out there.
Speaker 3:So alligators can lay yeah and sun suntan there, within sight of our visitors and not on the road, where our visitors are right don't tell my wife that she might send me out there for a couple hours yeah, so we have a lot of alligators, turtles um, of course, white-tailed deer raccoons, possum, bobcat, coyote, yeah you name it Horses.
Speaker 3:And horses yeah, and horses. I'm really proud of one other wildlife adventure that we have, and that's fox squirrels. So I think maybe if you live on Daniel Island, you might know what fox squirrels are, but I don't think there are any left in Mount Pleasant. So fox squirrels are a little bit larger than the gray squirrels and, uniquely, they're all unique. They all have a little bit of gray, a little bit of white and a little bit of black, but none of them look the same Really, and so there are pockets of them all around the little country of South Carolina. Boone Hall has great habitat for it All those old pecan groves and open woods. Boone Hall has the perfect habitat for it, but they're not there, and so my guess is they've been replaced or moved out and then not been in the planet.
Speaker 3:So the Department of Natural Resources has brought some back, and we have a donor that will donate these fox squirrels. Dnr brings them to us and releases them, and so the idea is we will have a sustainable population of fox squirrels these squirrels that most people in Mount Pleasant have never seen.
Speaker 1:That's something to be really proud of. It's really neat.
Speaker 3:It's really neat yeah.
Speaker 1:That's fascinating. All right, well, before we let you go, I'm going to ask you one more question, all right? Okay, so we're talking about how we have 300 years of history of Boone Hall and we know that we're going to have a forever of Boone Hall because of the great things that were done to preserve this incredible, incredible place. So what do you see? The future of Boone Hall? Do you see it exactly the same? Do you see any changes? What do you see in the next 25 years not 300? Before we get spaceships and, you know, floating cars and things like that?
Speaker 3:Great, great question, and I only wish I had the foresight of those folks who planted those live oaks 300 years ago, and unfortunately I do not.
Speaker 3:But I think in the next 25 years we will keep making improvements to buildings in a nice historic way, like we've done with the gin house.
Speaker 3:We will maintain Willie's produce market now and making sure that's supplied with fresh produce, and so we'll keep up the farm.
Speaker 3:By the way, the farming is becoming harder and harder and harder also because of all of our supplies are becoming harder and harder to find locally right, and so, um, we have some challenges ahead just because we're a lot different than everyone else, and those challenges are becoming, will become even more and more difficult.
Speaker 3:But we can also celebrate, um, those challenges and and how we're different, and we will find, we will continue to find those ways of of helping everyone appreciate how different we are and why we're different and what's going to be the future, and so we will keep continuing to do things. Like the sweetgrass, we also have a small forest of longleaf pine, which longleaf has mostly disappeared from this area as well. It's in the france marion national forest, but it's a very rare pine species and it's our, it's our native pine and so we we have a small display of pine trees, we have a special pines, we have a small display of cotton and indigo, and so we will continue to find diversity and promote that history and improve the property over the next 25 years within reason and still respecting that history.
Speaker 2:Not only that is you know the ability to give back to the community, I think is, you know, hugely important and ongoing. You know the traditions that you've started.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. We. We're definitely part of this community. We call mount pleasant, or we're now right in the middle of it, and, um, it somewhat breaks my heart when someone speaks out that they don't like the farm there, and so then it's our job, then it's our challenge to to be a better part of the community and help them understand what we're going to be doing forever and and we're not going away, we're just trying to do it better so they can understand.
Speaker 1:You just tell me who they are, I'll have a conversation with them.
Speaker 3:Okay, Jim.
Speaker 1:Thank you, kathy. Well, on behalf of the chamber, of course, we love having Boone Hall as a member. We love your spirit and everything that you've done for the community. Personally, like I said, it's one of my favorite places to visit and I can't wait, like you said, to hopefully bring my grandchildren there one day and just have them to continue to visit. What can our membership do to help you overcome these challenges that you're facing? Can you ask that question? What are the challenges you're seeing? Right, our membership. What can we do to help? Yep, I got it and you're gonna add you want to do it?
Speaker 2:go ahead, yeah jim, you know we've got a growing and vibrant membership um with the chamber. Um, what can we do, uh, to support your efforts? Um, and what can the members do to support your efforts?
Speaker 3:yeah, great question. Well, thank you for this opportunity, um, thank you for the chamber, um and charleston radio group for for hosting me and and to get to explain, kind of, the back roads of boone hall and I think the chamber moving. I think the chamber can keep doing what they're doing and allowing Boone Hall to be Boone Hall and speaking up for Boone Hall. They're going to be a farm forever and the chamber's already doing a great job of supporting but I think any opportunity, like you said, kathy, just let me know who those people are complaining about. I think if you hear those folks that are that are maybe um misunderstood about the purpose of Boone hall and about the future of Boone hall then maybe, maybe speak to them or send them send them to us.
Speaker 3:And we'll be glad to give them that answer what a real purpose is and our mission and how we want to be a community.
Speaker 2:I think that's key. You know there's a lot of misunderstanding and misperception and hear it from the source and saying, hey, you know, yes, no, indifferent whatever it may or may not be to but but to have that feedback, I think is um is valuable. Um, you know our membership, in addition to doing what you're saying, speaking out the truth and helping you know we hopefully they'll come visit um and attend and uh, all the wonderful events that y'all put on is amazing. I've been to several of them, like we've talked about. But, most importantly, knowing we have this gem of history in the middle of of mount pleasant in our backyard, I think is uh speaks volumes.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Scott.
Speaker 1:All right, awesome, it was such a pleasure to have you, jim. Before we leave, we're going to thank again our sponsors, charleston Radio Group Studios, our friend Brian Cleary and, of course, to the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. If you'd like to be a sponsor or a guest on our show, just reach out to us and we will get back to you. Be sure to like and subscribe to all of our media channels. We'll be in Spotify, itunes, youtube, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn. So thank you all so very much for being with us here today. Until next time, mount Pleasant. No-transcript.
