I grew up in the golden age of the TV miniseries—Jesus of Nazareth, A.D., The Winds of War, The Thornbirds, and on and on. One of my favorites from the 1980s was the dramatization of the Civil War epics by John Jakes: North and South and North and South Book II (based on the novel Love and War).

My sister was also a fan of the miniseries, and when we were in college at LSU, on one of our road trips (somewhere out of state to visit family or coming back from a family reunion or something) we decided to stop and visit Greenwood Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana—the house and grounds that they used for Resolute, Justin LaMotte’s plantation (which was supposed to be just down the way from Mount Royal). So, since I’ve seen Resolute, I couldn’t come to Charleston (twenty years later) without visiting Mount Royal. We only got to see four rooms on the bottom floor of the house, and from what I could tell, they weren’t rooms that were featured in the miniseries. I did learn that the current house was built in 1935 and is still privately owned (therefore, no picture taking allowed inside). But, still, it was fun to drive up Oak Lane and see the real place that has lived in my imagination for so many years.

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