hampton-preston mansion and gardens

We toured three homes while in Columbia. Woodrow Wilson House, Robert Mills House and the Hampton-Preston Mansion. All three were interesting but the best of breed was the Hampton-Preston Mansion. While the restoration/preservation was excellent, the history provided by our docent, Erin, was superb. Heather provided us great tours of the Wilson and Mills mansions with wonderful history notes at each one. CAUTION: Don't walk from downtown unless you are a) in fairly good shape; and b) it's not freezing outside. There is ample available parking at the Robert Mills mansion where you also buy tickets for all three tours.

visited and enjoyed the information given by the docents.....had lived near and driven by this house for years and it was well worth learning the history behind it!

Interesting history to the building and grounds. They also have a nice gift shop. At different times of the year the garden may look quite different.

This was one of the three houses I visited during my stay in Columbia, S.C. You will be given an excellent one-hour tour of the house's history. The tour guides are friendly, patient, and eager to answer all your questions. Bring a camera to capture the beautiful gardens that surround the house. And make sure to visit the Robert Mills House across the street and the Woodrow Wilson House a few blocks away. You may buy tickets to each house at the museum gift shop or check out historiccolumbia.org for more information.

We went by and inquired about a tour here and found some wonderful guides, more like a Columbia Concierge service. .When asking about the tours they told us about the weekly farmer's/craft market that was going on just a few blocks away. So we went to that first (which was fantastic) then came back and did 2 of the 4 tours available. .We have toured many historic homes all across the county and these were some of the best we have ever done. Well worth the time and affordable costs. The guides are also great representatives for the city full of history and southern charm..We have visited the city a number of times and wish we will have the ability to move here one day.

Our docent, Heather, was very knowledgeable of the history of this beautiful house and it's occupants. Heather questioned us several times about odd period pieces and made the tour very interesting and interactive. Amazing that the exterior of this home was originally brick but was stuccoed to appear as blocks. Lovely symmetry in the architecture and furnished in the period, however not many of the original furnishings. Very interesting that the home was saved by nuns during the war. The tour is an hour but well worth a visit. Tickets are sold across the street at the gift shop. Plenty of shaded street parking on Blanding St on Sundays.

The Historic Columbia group that runs this home and tour also does three others in this neighborhood. The great thing about this is that you can tour multiple homes in one day (it's much cheaper when you do more than one in one day). And because all the tours leave from the gift shop across the street, you can schedule multiple "1-hour" tours back to back.Knowledgeable tour guides give history of the Hampton and Preston families as well as the building's later owners and users. Definitely spend another 10-15 minutes meandering through the gardens outside.

There are several historic houses in Columbia, and this is a nice one. The trouble is, most of the stately old mansions were destroyed and looted by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's troops in the burning of Columbia in the Civil War.

The place is wonderfully restored. The tour guide provides a relaxing yet insightful explanation of what is displayed as well as information how it relates to the history of the city.

As Arizona residents, we found this tour to be extremely educational giving us much better insight into both the North and the South as far as the Civil War is concerned and the effects of the war economically and on the people in the community. We were very impressed with the knowledge of history of both the house and of the era as given to us by Walt, our tour guide. When you hear all the stories that belong to this mansion, and how it survived demolition, it is amazing to see such a wonderful restoration.

We enjoyed our visit to the Mansion. Quite a lot of hard work has gone into the restoration. The home is furnished with mostly period pieces. However, i was a bit disappointed in the lack of Hampton family furnishings. The docent was pleasant and knowledgable about the house. We also appreciated the exhibit about urban slavery in the basement of the house--a sad, sad piece of history. Hope some day they might add replicas of the former out buildings: kitchen, slave quarters, etc. on the large lovely grounds.There is another house across the street (where you purchase tickets) We did not have time for both houses.

Took the combo ticket for about $15 per person for the Hampton and the Mills Mansion across the street. Docent guided tours of an hour each and lovely grounds. The docents were students studying preservation at the university and loved their subject. Their tours were full of stories about the quirks of the owners, the history of the buildings, the abuse of the slaves (told it like it was) and a fascinating view of long ago times. Small little gift shop in the Mills Home. The buildings are small for stately homes and if you are expecting Monticello or Versailles in France this is not the case. But if you like history and local interest these two houses are worth the visit in the delightful and charming city of Columbia. Try to go on a sunny day as this adds to the charm of the setting.

Mainly visited Columbia for Congaree NP, but we also joined volunteer docent-guided tours of several historic houses. Hampton-Preston Mansion is an excellent choice and probably the most interesting with the Robert Mills House being a close second. Recommend.

Along with the Robert Mills home, it is great at christmas. They have a special tour during the holidays and depict how they lived back then in period costumes.

This house was built in 1818. It is magnificent! This house as been used as a Union Army Headquarters, 2 different women's college,and even a convent for Ursaline nuns! The appointments in each room we toured were beautiful and many pieces are original to the previous owners. There is even a room made to look like the dorm room when it was a women's college.The dining room is lovely with many antique pieces of silver, crystal and china. The house had several paintings depicting the owners thoroughbred horses as well as a charming portrait of two lovely girls who were nieces of one of the occupants. The docent who led us through this house had many interesting stories and it was apparent she was well read about this house and the time period in general. What a treat to tour a beautiful house and learn a little history painlessly!!!