Hampton Park, at 61 acres, is Charleston’s largest park. By contrast, New York City’s Central Park spans 843 acres, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park covers 1,017 acres.
The land was originally granted by King Charles II to colonist Joseph Dalton, who arrived on one of the first ships to reach the Carolina colony in April 1670. By 1769, the property had passed to planter John Gibbes, who consolidated it into a 232-acre estate called Orange Grove Plantation. During the Revolutionary War, the British seized the land, burned Gibbes’ house and used the property as a staging area during their 42-day siege of Charleston in 1780.
In August 1791, the South Carolina Jockey Club purchased a portion of the property to build the Washington Race Course, a one-mile oval track that operated from 1792 to 1882. The course hosted Race Week each February, which became the height of Charleston’s social season, featuring thoroughbred racing, banquets and formal balls. Among the founders was Wade Hampton, father of Wade Hampton III, for whom the park would later be named…