Heyward-Washington House — Attraction in Charleston

TL;DR: Highly recommend visiting the Heyward-Washington House. This beautifully preserved 18th-century home offers a self-paced audio tour in two versions—one focused on historical context and the other on the house and its artifacts. Plan for at least 45 minutes per tour, or 60–75 minutes if you listen to the optional extra content (worth it!). There is a great admission package that also includes entry to the Charleston Museum and the 19th-century Joseph Manigault House. I suggest visiting the Charleston Museum and Joseph Manigault House on the same day, and saving the Heyward-Washington House for another day to fully enjoy the experience.

The Heyward-Washington House is a beautiful, history-rich 18th-century home with a remarkably immersive self-paced audio tour. The curators have done an outstanding job recreating the feel of the original space, including featuring one original piece of furniture that once belonged in the house.

Visitors can choose between two themed audio tours:

History-focused tour – Provides deep historical context of the house, the people that lived there, and its era. House/Artifacts-focused tour – Explores the building, furnishings, and material culture.

A single tour takes a minimum of 45 minutes, not including the optional extra tidbits that you can select from. These bonus stories and details are highly engaging and well worth the time, adding about 15–30 minutes. Unfortunately, I only had time for one tour, but would gladly return to do the other.

Estimated Time Commitments: One audio tour: ~45 minutes One audio tour + most/all extra tidbits: ~60–75 minutes Two tours: roughly double the above times

Pricing & Ticket Value: The ticket can be purchased as part of a package deal granting access to three historic sites: the Charleston Museum, the Heyward-Washington House (18th century), and the Joseph Manigault House (19th century). The flexibility to visit on separate days makes it easy to plan. For the best experience, I recommend visiting the Charleston Museum and Joseph Manigault House on the same day, and dedicating another day to the Heyward-Washington House so you can explore without...

We had bought tickets for this tour along with the Joseph Manigault house. Both were very nice (he was supposedly the wealthiest man in British North America in 1774) and it's a very nice example of Georgian-style mansions but the three of us decided that Hayward-Washington was our favorite. A lot of it had to do with our guide Anna. She's working on a degree in Historical Preservation and it shows! She's so earnest and enthusiastic and begs for questions hoping it will be one which requires her to do research the answer. She was very knowledgeable of the home and its workings. She had a great sense of humor which was important when you viewed some of the paintings. There are original portraits by Jeremiah Theus who was "the" painter of the time and was known for doing excellent paintings of his clients from the neck down (ie clothing) but the heads looked horrible in relation to the body. It appears that having a Theus was more important than a quality portrait by a lesser known artist. Anna was able to tell us about the reasons surrounding George Washington's visit to the house and yes you could actually touch the handrail that George Washington used to climb the stairs. Oh, and there is proof that George Washington actually...

Only possible to see as part of a tour which starts every 1/2 hour and lasts around 45 mins. The price of admissions includes visiting all rooms located on two of the three floors of the house. Rooms contain antique furniture and some old portraits of prominent people who lived there or were in some way associated with the house. Some antique furniture pieces are uniquely impressive, but the fake food props they display is rather a tacky way to evoke the 18th century lifestyles. Owned by the Charleston History Museum this house is one of three sites you can purchase one ticket for. The other two sites are the Museum itself and Joseph Manigault House (located across the street from the museum). Unlike the Manigault house, this house is not very esthetically pleasing or architecturally exceptional. Sadly, the guided tour does not extend to ancillary buildings or stories of the lives of the enslaved people. Rather it’s focus is on the “18th century Lowcountry elite”, maybe that’s understandable - who would want to hear about the...