An 1820s coastal farmhouse at Snee Farm serves and the park’s Visitor Center and Museum

GENERAL INFORMATION

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site is located at the Snee Farm, what is left of the plantation owned by the Pinckney Family between 1754 and 1817. Charles Pinckney personally owned the plantation from 1782 until he had to sell it to pay debts in 1817. No buildings remain from his time, and since selling the plantation, thirteen other families have owned the property. The house that currently sits on the property was built by the Snee Family around 1828 and now serves as the Visitor Center and Museum for the park.

OPERATING HOURS

The Visitor Center at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site is open seasonally. Get the latest schedule on the National Park Service’s Basic Information web page for the park.

AMENITIES

• Ranger-staffed information desk where you can pick up a park brochure
• Charles Pinckney Museum
• Park film
• Book and Souvenir Store

PARK FILM

The best way to start your visit to Charles Pinckney National Historic Site is to watch the 17-minute film about Charles Pinckney, Forgotten Founder. This film is shown on request. There are three other films available as well: the 11-minute Founding Brothers: Sides of Slavery; the 24-minute Birth of the Constitution, an episode of Charlie Brown and Friends; and a 27-minute documentary on the Gullah Geechee culture of the South Carolina low country.

Theater Room of the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site Visitor Center

CHARLES PINCKNEY MUSEUM

One room of the Charles Pinckney Museum inside the Visitor Center at Charles Pinckney National Historic

Museum exhibits dedicated to the life of Charles Pinckney are on display in three rooms on the lower level of the Visitor Center. The museum is mainly made up of information panels, but there are also artifacts that were found during archaeological excavations of the property. These digs set out to determine where the original Pinckney house sat, along with other buildings of the time. Foundations of some buildings have been found, but the purpose of the buildings remains speculative. The reason why the original buildings were torn down to make room for the new ones is unknown, but historians theorize that hurricanes and bad weather had damaged the original buildings so they were no longer usable by the new owners. No evidence of recycling the old materials was found when studying the current Snee Farmhouse. It was built from entirely new materials.

Artifacts from the Pinckney era found on the property at Charles Picnkney National Historic Site

Very little remains from Pinckney’s life. His main home was in downtown Charleston, and it was destroyed in a fire along with nearly all of Pinckney’s writings, including his original draft of a proposed United States Constitution. As a result, everything in the museum specifically about Pinckney is nothing more than information panels. All of the artifacts were found on the property and are believed to be possessions of the Pinckney family, such as broken dishes, building materials, clothing buckles and buttons, and other items that were lost or thrown away.

Charles Pinckney museum exhibits inside the Visitor Center at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

For those who do not mind reading, in addition to information on Charles Pinckney and his family, there is plenty of information about the Lowcountry of South Carolina, slavery in the area, agriculture, South Carolina’s role in the American Revolution and Civil War, how the Declaration of Independence came to be, and quite a few exhibits on the history of Snee Farm, from Pinckney’s time through modern day. All of this information can be found in a history book, but for someone like myself who likes history but who never studied much on the early years of our country, it was a welcome opportunity to read all of the panels. I can say that I am a much smarter man because of it.

Information panel on the Lowcountry of South Carolina on display inside the Visitor Center of Charles Picnkney National Historic Site

SCHEDULING YOUR TIME

The exhibits in the three rooms of the museum contain a lot of information on a variety of subjects. As with any museum at one of the National Park sites, most people browse around for a few minutes before heading on to the “main attraction” of the park. However, in the case of Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, other than a short trail around the property, the museum is the main attraction. Thus, most people spend no more than an hour at the park before leaving. For those who don’t want to miss a word, plan to spend an hour at the house reading over the provided information, plus 20 minutes to watch the park film.

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