Five-Star Woodlands Inn in SC lets you vacation like a plantation owner

  Five-star Woodlands Inn, now (above) and back in the day (below). (Photos: Woodllands Inn)

By Kathy Newbern and J.S. Fletcher © 2009

If you ever romanticized about what it would be like to be a wealthy Southern planter heading to your summer mansion to escape the heat and humidity of a sweltering Charleston August afternoon, then fantasize no more: Head to the Woodlands Inn located in Summerville, SC (and yes, named for its role as a summer getaway). We chose it as the spot to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

A 25-minute drive from Charleston, and about the same distance from I-95, the Woodlands Inn will charm you with elegance and true Southern hospitality from peach-infused iced tea at check-in and jacket-and-tie gourmet dinners, to post-dining reading and board games in common parlors and sitting rooms to magnolia-shaded gardens overflowing with azaleas and camellias.

This is the South at its finest.

You arrive at Woodlands Inn via Parsons Road, a winding, graveled drive sided with tall pines and magnolia trees. This is the first indication that you are about to enter a sanctuary, a place of quiet seclusion, where you can connect not only with nature, but also with your partner and your inner self. As our host put it: "The perfect place to catch up on life."

But don’t fret that the road leads to an out-of-date abode. The Woodlands Inn, though it has been around since 1906, is hardly an antique – though some would value it a priceless piece of history. The Woodlands Inn is 21st century from its 19 restored guestrooms - seven of them in the original house - featuring contemporary amenities such as working fireplaces, flat screen TVs, BOSE CD stereos, and lavish baths with steam-heated towel racks, Jacuzzis, and marble showers with rain-heads, to its swimming pool, tennis courts, and world-class restaurant.

How world-class can an inn in Summerville, SC, be? The Woodlands Inn is one of only four properties in North America to hold the Mobil Five Star and AAA Five Diamond ratings for both its accommodations and dining room. Mind you, that’s not just in South Carolina, but only four in all of North America. (The other three, by the way, are The Wynn in Las Vegas, The Ritz-Carleton in San Francisco, and The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, VA.)

The history of the inn is a fascinating, starting with original owner Robert Parsons, a railroad baron from Pennsylvania who bought 100 acres of land right outside Summerville to build his family's winter home. Odd, isn’t it, that his romantic notion was centered on getting away from the North’s winter cold, as opposed to Charleston’s blistering heat? Parsons, for whom the roadway leading to the inn is named, invited his Northern friends down for visits, thus exposing the area to expansion and development.

Charlestonians were aware that the pine forests and elevated land (70 feet) around the Summerville area provided a refuge from the summer heat and malaria outbreaks of the Lowcountry. In 1888 incidentally, the International Congress of Physicians in Paris declared Summerville’s 1888 one of the two healthiest in the world for people with pulmonary disorders.

In 1939, the Parsons family sold the property to Alain White, a botanist and world-known chess expert. The home served as a hospice for his ailing sister May, and during World War II as an entertainment venue for soldiers.

Later, Mrs. Ruth Gadsden was bequeathed the property, and she lived in the house for the rest of her life.

In 1986, the house became the Gadsden Manor Inn. Joe Whitmore of New York bought it in 1993, and began 18 months of restoration and reconstruction. Fellow New Yorker David Eskell-Briggs, a noted furniture and interior designer, was commissioned to decorate the inn, his work reflecting his English heritage and travels to India and Jamaica. Woodlands Inn opened in May 1995.

Salamander Hospitality purchased the property in 2006 and has done even more renovation, which includes the addition of a casual dining offering called Pines. As General Manager Bob Seigle pointed out over in The Dining Room, there is no place left in the inn that has not been upgraded.

This seems to be an integral component of how Salamander Hospitality, has chosen to conduct business. The entrepreneurial company is owned by noted businesswoman and philanthropist Sheila C. Johnson. The Salamander Collection features these other four- and five-star hotels: Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, VA, the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, FL, and the Colosseum Luxury Sports Condominium Hotel currently under construction in Blacksburg, VA.

On our property tour at Woodlands Inn, Seigle pointed out the tennis courts, the pool, the gazebo (where employees were setting up for a wedding the next day), and the Pavillion, which is a perfect space for business meeting and receptions for up to 200 people. The manager noted that the Inn’s wedding business keeps his staff busy nearly every weekend, and looking around the facility, it’s no wonder why. (Here's the link to their Wedding Packages.)

For a corporate function, or even a wedding with lodging included, Seible says the entire inn can be booked. “Some (corporations) prefer to take all 19 rooms and feel totally into the setting, knowing that all of our attention will be on their needs. We make all our guests feel special - that’s what we are known for - but if the whole place is booked by one group, can you imagine how much we can offer?”
After staying in one of the inn’s executive suites just steps from the award-winning restaurants, we know first-hand just how much Woodlands Inn has to offer – from the romance of the fireplace in our suite to the complimentary M&Ms on the coffee table to one of the prettiest turn-down services we’ve seen. Did we mention the plush four-poster bed? Enough said (it was our anniversary, after all.)

Read about dining at Woodlands Inn.

Read about massages at Woodlands Inn.

Luxury Travel Examiner Kathy M. Newbern and husband, J.S. Fletcher, report on luxury destinations, spas and cruising around the globe. They are award-winning members of the Society of American Travel Writers, and operate their personalized romance novel business based in Raleigh, where they let you star in your own romance.