Congressman
Henry E. Brown, Jr.

Discover Dorchester County

Dorchester County (map) was named after Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 1696, Congregationalists from that town moved south and established a new settlement called Dorchester. Although the town of Dorchester had been abandoned by 1788, the parish in which it was located continued to be referred to as St. George Dorchester. This name was subsequently adopted for the county when it was formed from parts of Colleton and Berkeley counties in 1897.

The county seat is the town of St. George, which also took its name from the old parish. The town of Summerville was settled in the late eighteenth century as a summer resort for planters who wished to escape the malaria prevalent on their rice plantations Middleton Place Gardens, the remains of an old rice plantation since being laid out it 1741 are the oldest landscaped gardens in the country. Middleton Place was the home of Henry Middleton (1717-1784) who was the president of the Continental Congress, his son Arthur Middleton (1742-1787) who signed the Declaration of Independence, and his grandson Henry Middleton (1770-1846) who became a Governor, Congressman, and an Ambassador to Russia.

Dorchester County is called the "gateway to Charleston," and it offers unique tourism opportunities all its own. With a number of historic plantations and gardens to historic districts like downtown Summerville (which locals often call "Flowertown in the Pines"), Dorchester was often the retreat for many of the area's well-to-do.