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The Legacy of Southern Hospitality From the beginning, Southern hospitality has revolved not only around history and etiquette, but almost every aspect of it has also included an association with some form of food - Southern food, of course. At Palmetto Bluff, shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, R.T. Wilson, Jr. entertained lavishly in his magnificent “Palmetto Lodge”. The Palmetto Bluff estate was designed with guests in mind. Visitors arrived at the estate by way of a Savannah Line steamship, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, or the Seaboard Airline train. The social pages of the New York Times listed the comings and goings of the New York elite with frequent mention of individuals “leaving today to visit Mr. and Mrs. R.T. Wilson of Palmetto Bluff, S.C.” Guests would stay for weeks, enjoying Mrs. Wilson’s lavish parties. In the 1950s, Union Camp Paper Company built a rustic but charming hunting lodge overlooking the May River. In the long, wood-paneled “Trophy Room” sumptuous game dinners and feasts of local seafood were presented nightly. In the modern South, such formality has given way to a more casual approach to food. But the food is always there. And it is front and center here, at Palmetto Bluff. From afternoons spent “porching” and sipping sweet tea (or something stronger); to crab cake socials that spill from the sidewalks to the Village streets; to oyster roasts where guests stand elbow-to-elbow at a common table partaking in the sweet bounty of our river and the enduring camaraderie that the tradition creates. At Palmetto Bluff, the tradition of Southern Hospitality is alive and well.
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