Two days before Christmas the streets of historic Charleston are quiet. A cold front-at least, cold by Southern standards has descended on the city. The tourists gawking at the colorful houses on Rainbow Row are bundled in puffer jackets and mittens, while the locals have retreated to the warmth of indoors. But inside the Parker-Drayton House, at 6 Gibbes Street, near Charleston's southwest tip, it's more than slightly chilly. There is no central heating in this 220-year-old mansion. But then, the owner is a hardy person.
Now in her eighties, Penny Patton remains gamine and graceful, with a streak of wildness that has always coursed through her. Growing up in New Jersey's horse country, she could ride while standing on her mount's back at age 10. A decade later, vacationing with her family in Cuba, she ran off with President Fulgencio Batista's soldiers at the close of Fidel Castro's revolution, leaving her father fuming. In 1970, on a trip south with her husband Grant, the couple fell in love with Charleston. They moved from Boston, where he had attended Harvard Medical School, and bought the Parker-Drayton House, a 7,970-square-foot wonder perched on 0.56 acres smack in the heart of the city.
Dit verhaal komt uit de March 2025 editie van Town & Country US.
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THE SPY Has to TRAVEL
Freck Vreeland was raised in privilege by a legendary arbiter of taste. He boarded at Groton, studied at Yale, and befriended Jackie Kennedy-then things got interesting. Here, ahead of his upcoming memoir, the high society secret agent tells all.
Game CHANGER
A century ago, Black Americans fell in love with bridge. Excluded from whites-only leagues, they made the game their own, and for a few exhilarating decades it played a starring role in the social and political lives of the burgeoning African-American middle and upper classes. Can its legacy survive in the modern age?
CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE FORETOLD
The signs were everywhere. There was trouble at the San Antonio home of Brad and Suzanne Simpson. But when the mother and real estate agent went missing after a public fight with her husband at the exclusive Argyle club, a tony Texas enclave began to wonder if it had looked the other way for too long. Was discretion the true culprit in the still unsolved case?
What's Luck Got to Do with It?
Longevity in Hollywood can be elusive unless you're Angela Bassett. With a smart new series that puts her in the Oval Office and a summer blockbuster on the horizon, she delivers a master class in both elegance and endurance.
No Shrinking VIOLET
For a certain woman, this iconic scent has become as much an everyday wardrobe staple as her Cartier Tank and her Hermès scarf.
I Pledge Allegiance to THIS HOUSE
How a Charleston visionary came to love the demanding landmark she never wanted in the first place.
The College Counselor Rock Star Diaries
They command enormous fees to insert themselves in your teenager's life, choosing classes, extracurriculars-even summer activities-all in the pursuit of creating the perfect college candidate. Good luck getting one to see you.
The Cult of BACK PAIN
Membership in this highly undesirable club comes with its own lingo, syllabus, and gurus and now its very own antihero.
The Un-Tortured Artist
Robert Rauschenberg's compound on Captiva will once again serve as muse.
Where Is My Bodyguard?
Those four anxious little words are suddenly everywhere, casting a spotlight on the shadowy and booming business of executive protection.
