Built in several phases during the 18th and 19th centuries, the plantation was the primary residence of several generations of the Middleton family, many of whom played prominent roles in the colonial and antebellum history of South Carolina.

The plantation, now a National Historic Landmark District, is used as a museum,[1] and is home to the oldest landscaped gardens in the United States.

[4][5] John Williams, an early South Carolina planter, probably began building Middleton Place in the late 1730s.

His son-in-law Henry Middleton (1717–1784), who later served as President of the First Continental Congress, completed the house's main section and its north and south flankers, and began work on the elaborate gardens.

At this point, the southward-flowing river bends sharply to the east en route to its mouth at Charleston Harbor about 15 miles (24 km) downstream.

Ashley River Road (part of South Carolina Highway 61), which connects Middleton Place to Charleston to the southeast and the Legend Oaks area to the northwest, forms the historic district's western boundary.

He likely began construction on the main block of the house, selecting the site for its strategic view of the Ashley River.

Middleton's father had immigrated from Barbados and had established a plantation in the area which is now part of the cities of Goose Creek and North Charleston.

Determined to outshine his neighbors, who were laying out neat four-squared patterned parterres, Middleton employed an English gardener named Simms, of whom little is known.

Four years later, at the height of the war, the British landed several thousand troops at Charleston with plans to invade the southern colonies.

In the ensuing Siege of Charleston, British troops ransacked Middleton Place, beheading many of the statues and looting the plantation's artwork and furniture.

[10] Newly discovered records show that Middleton Place imported water buffalo from Constantinople in the late 18th century, the first in the United States.

Three of the four planted at the corners of the main parterre survive, grown to fifteen feet: One is Camellia japonica "reine des fleurs"; the other is an ancestor of the modern cultivar Charles Sprague Sargent.

[11] He also filled greenhouses with exotics and imported plants and seeds to give antebellum Middleton Place something of the air of a botanical garden.

Three years later, the Charleston earthquake toppled the walls of the main house and north flanker and further damaged the gardens.

Shortly thereafter the Middleton Place Foundation was established, with Smith's grandson Charles Duell acting as its first president.

[12] The original access to Middleton Place was a roadway that ran due east from Ashley River Road for approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) before terminating in a large loop.

[13] The east gardens stretch eastward from the main residence for approximately 200 feet (61 m) before descending in a series of terraces to the floodplain of the Ashley River.