Horse racing on Maybank Highway!

The land on which The Preserve is located was once part of the historic Fenwick Plantation. Original owner of the plantation, John Fenwick, passed away in 1747 leaving the property and 11,000 acres in the South Carolina lowcountry to his son, Edward Fenwick. An avid horseman, Edward imported fine Arabian and Godolphin horses from England and bred them on his Johns Island property. It is said that Fenwick often exhibited his horses at the Battery in downtown Charleston when they were not resting in the impressive two-story stable he constructed at Fenwick Hall. The stables no longer stand on the property. In 1758, Fenwick founded the South Carolina Jockey Club along with a number of recognizable names: John Drayton, John Mayrant, John Izard, William Moultrie, Samuel Elliott, Daniel Horry and William Williamson. Perhaps most impressive is the three-mile racetrack Fenwick built beginning at what is now the intersection of Maybank and River Roads (only a stone's throw from The Preserve's location) running down present-day Maybank Highway. According to David Wilkinson's Voyage of the Flora: Destination Charleston, "the most important race in this period in South Carolina was the Charleston Subscription Purse, the only pre-Revolutionary race for which there is a complete record of its winners. At the time, "Fenwick Plantation was also referred to as "The Johns Island Stud."