Festival of Houses and Gardens

Name/Title

Festival of Houses and Gardens

Entry/Object ID

HCF.FOHG.

Scope and Content

One of the first fundraising programs developed by Historic Charleston Foundation after its incorporation in 1947 was its annual spring tours of historic houses, during which trained “hostesses” would guide visitors through several private homes in Charleston’s historic district. In addition to raising revenue to support Historic Charleston Foundation’s preservation efforts, the tours performed an educational function by presenting Charleston architecture and decorative arts to both visitors and residents alike. The Festival of Houses and Gardens has become one of the nation’s most well-known heritage tours, having been named to the Top Twenty Events in the Southeast by the Southeastern Tourism Association for several years. The program’s popularity grew each year until 2020 when it was cancelled due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, the FOHG was reimagined to accommodate the restrictions and best-practices in place due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, implementing virtual programming for the first few weeks, and commencing with in-person events through the end of May. continues to grow each year. The Festival of Houses and Gardens was This collection consists of tour publicity, including posters, brochures, and guidebooks, and this collection features some of the promotional materials from the first ten years of the annual tours of houses. Of particular note are the guidebooks which contain not only house histories written by Samuel Gaillard Stoney, Jr., accompanied by photographs by numerous Charleston photographers, but also information about Historic Charleston Foundation and its activities, essays, maps, and advertisements for a variety of local businesses.

Collection

HCF Institutional Records

Acquisition

Accession

HCF.

Source or Donor

HCF Institutional Records

Acquisition Method

Collected by Staff

Lexicon

LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

Festivals

Search Terms

Festival of Houses / FOH, Historic Charleston Foundation--Tours

Legacy Lexicon

Object Name

Series

Archive Details

Creator

Historic Charleston Foundation

Archive Size/Extent

2 document boxes, posters

Archive Notes

Date(s): 1954+ Level of Description: Series System of Arrangement: Filed in chronological order. Where there is a brochure and a schedule/program for the year, the brochure is filed before the schedule/program. Tickets are in a separate file.

Location

Location

Shelf

Archives C-1

Room

Margaretta P. Childs Archives

Building

Missroon House

Category

Permanent

Date

February 7, 2023

Relationships

Related Entries

Notes

2008.003.15a-b, 2012.010.094.1-7, HCF.FOHG.001, HCF.FOHG.002

Created By

admin@catalogit.app

Create Date

October 14, 2004

Updated By

kemmons

Update Date

March 30, 2021