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Garden Tours

Want to branch out into something different?

You're on the right (garden) path. Our 14 acres of landscapes in the heart of Robert Mills Historic District feature heirloom plantings popular with gardeners over the past two centuries. Take a stroll or enjoy your lunch in any of our gardens.

The gardens at Robert Mills House, Hampton-Preston Mansion, and Seibels House will be open to the public as follows: 

Seibels House (1601 Richland Street): 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Tuesday - Friday 
Robert Mills (1616 Blanding Street): 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday | 1 - 4 p.m. Sunday 
Hampton-Preston (1615 Blanding Street): 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday | 1 - 4 p.m. Sunday

Hampton-Preston and Robert Mills open garden hours are extended to 7 p.m. on Thursdays during Daylight Savings Time.

Looking for something specific?

Visit our Garden Database to find exactly what you're looking for. With detailed information about every plant in all six of our historic properties, this database represents a wide swath of the diverse flora native to South Carolina.

Robert Mills Gardens

Due to its use by educational and religious institutions, grounds of the Robert Mills House never featured ornamental gardens. After Historic Columbia saved the property in 1960, gardens were created. Today, the gardens are a novel combination of an early 1970s landscape plan, featuring hallmarks of 19th century English design, and species and cultivars native to eastern North America. Open to the public and available for special event rentals, the grounds of the Robert Mills House are an inviting green space set within an urban environment.

Learn more about the Robert Mills House

Hampton-Preston Gardens

The Hampton and Preston families ensured that the four-acre grounds around the mansion signaled their extensive wealth and influence. Through enslaved labor the landscape was transformed into regionally-acclaimed gardens that contained a remarkable collection of native varieties and plants from around the world. One of Columbia's most heavily documented historic estates, Historic Columbia is recreating the gardens in the spirit and design of the antebellum era. The second phase of this transformation is schedule for completion in May 2018. Learn more about the garden's rehabilitation.

Learn more about the Hampton-Preston Mansion

Seibels House Garden

Long celebrated for its beauty, the Seibels House garden is often mentioned in 19th- and 20th-century travelogues and articles. The garden received a comprehensive transformation in 2007 through the vision of contemporary horticulturist A. Jenkins Farmer, featuring a revitalized landscape that merges existing historic elements with heritage plantings to showcase the contributions of generations of gardeners.

Learn more about Seibels House

Gardens of the Woodrow Wilson Family Home

Please note the Gardens at the Museum of Reconstruction Era at the Woodrow Wilson Family Home are closed for renovation for the next few weeks. To learn more about the renovation, visit our Annual Fund campaign. Updated January 9, 2023.

Reportedly designed under the influence of Jessie Wilson, the future president's mother, the landscape was divided into the formal front yard and working back yards, which included vegetable and flower beds as well as a kitchen house, privy and carriage house. While little documentation of the property exists from the time of the Wilson family's occupation, records indicate that roses, tea olives, crepe myrtle, japonica, and other shrubs were planted in the front yard, implying its use as a decorative garden area. Rehabilitated in 2013, large magnolias line the front of the property, shading a Victorian garden in the spirit of Jessie Wilson’s vision.

Learn more about the Woodrow Wilson Family Home

See what's in bloom with

HC's Garden Database

With detailed information about every plant in all six of our historic properties, this database represents a wide swath of the diverse flora native to South Carolina. Our horticulture experts use this tool to track how our plants are doing, and you can use it to learn which plants are in bloom during each season.

Explore Our Gardens