Beautiful & Peaceful | Palmetto Bluff
I was fortunate to tag along on a trip to the Montage Palmetto Bluff. Wowsa - it did not disappoint! And the little town nearby is so charming. Palmetto Bluff is a sleepy development on the May River in South Carolina, that has a gorgeous Montage hotel in the middle of it. It is in between Savannah and Hilton Head.
The hotel consists of a beautiful inn and lots of cottages fronting the river and other buildings surrounding lakes and ponds. The other buildings have two to ten rooms in them. We stayed in one of those. It was unseasonably cold when we were there, but we had a lovely time. This time my weather app was correct and I packed appropriately!
Miles and miles of bike trails, miles of gas street lights, a chapel on the river and a larger church (where Justin Bieber got married when he rented out the whole dang place), and water birds and alligators all around. Quietly beautiful.
Let me show you around the place…
Click images to enlarge
The Main Inn, Entrance and Lobby
I sat in here by the fire and read on a couple chilly mornings. That is Richard Wilson, Jr. over the mantel. I will tell you about him in a minute.
The lobby and rooms are filled with fresh flowers and beautiful low country artwork. A lot of it is by West Frazier.
West Frazier has been painting for 40 and does mostly landscape and travel scenes. He has been published in many magazines and books and has had his work shown at museum shows and is in permanent collections. I loved them.
There was also a small exhibition on the property by Amiri Farris. He is a contemporary artist, who examines the Gullah Geechee culture and other issues that are compelling to him. Wonder why these spoke to me? 💙
The view from our room. That is the church on the property. It was so pretty. In between the shutters were gas lights that flickered at night. A gorgeous place for a wedding.
Chip at the back entrance to the inn.
These are the ruins of the winter and spring home of Marion and Richard Wilson, Jr. It was a four story mansion that the New York banker built, and it covered what is now known on the property as Wilson Village Green, around which cottages, shops and restaurants are situated. Wilson was a multi-millionaire, whose little sister, Grace, married Cornelius Vanderbilt. There are two village areas in Palmetto Bluff and Wilson is the larger.
Wilson bought the 18,000 acres that he named Palmetto Bluff in 1902. He bought it as a hunting retreat. There were stables nearby where he raised thoroughbred race horses. His wife missed the social scene in New York City, so he built her a mansion. The mansion took five years to build. It was completed in 1914 and became the site of many lavish parties for the Wilson’s family and friends. It was an idyllic retreat, far away from New York. In March of 1926, the great mansion caught fire and was reduced to ashes. Wilson was devastated and returned to NYC, selling the whole property a few months later.
Mr. Wilson’s hunting dogs are buried here. Yes. It’s pet cemetery….
Wilson Village
The May River is a salt water estuary that is a transition zone from ocean to land. There are salt marshes, with marsh grass, fiddler and blue crabs, oysters and Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins. These are the coastal wetlands surrounding what is known as the low country.
Such a great shop! There’s one in Savannah too.
We drove into the little town of Bluffton and had lunch at a great BBQ place. Delish. And then walked around all the little shops.
This is shopping with Chip….
The view from the pool lunch place, of a wildlife island in the middle of the lake. Amazing - turtles, osprey, eagles, heron and egrets, alligators…
He’s always with us. 💙
The view from the cottages.
We rode our bikes down to Moreland Village at the other end of the property. It was about six miles there and back. This is brand new, so lots of construction and not much happening yet. But the village center is beautiful and ready for action.
Rode right by that bad boy - probably 6 feet away before I saw him…..🐊
We ate several of our meals at the bar at the Montage, at least the ones that weren’t group dinners. The food was great and so was the view.
We went into town one night for shrimp and grits at The Pearl - excellent!
It’s a beautiful place. If you get the chance to go, take it.
I hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing Palmetto Bluff. Later this week or next, I plan to talk about all things Travel - it was too much for one post. I’m also writing about the Zone of Genius and What’s Your Why?, we’ll be talking about grief and I have a new series starting soon called “Shop My Closet”! There’s a spring floral how-to and more painting projects will be revealed. I’’m also rearranging some topics on the blog. And the Summer Posh Box giveaway is coming up!
Lots to come so Stay Tuned!