This beautiful plantation represents the history and culture of Georgia’s rice coast. In the early 1800s, William Brailsford of Charleston carved a rice plantation from marshes along the Altamaha River. The plantation and its inhabitants were part of the genteel Low Country society that developed during the antebellum period and continued to grow rice at the plantation until 1913.
Rather than sell their family home, the fifth generation chose to start a dairy farm, and the family legacy was preserved by Gratz, Miriam and Ophelia Dent. Ophelia left the plantation to the state of Georgia in 1973.
Visitors take a guided tour through the home to see it as it was kept by Ophelia, filled with family heirlooms, 18th and 19th century furniture and Cantonese china. A museum features the family's silver collection and a model of Hofwyl during its heyday. The plantation is also a stop on the Colonial Coast Birding Trail, and an excellent spot to look for herons, egrets, ibis and painted buntings. A nature trail along the edge of the marsh where rice once flourished leads back to the Visitors Center.
