The notebook house: Where To Find The Real Mansion From The Notebook
The Plantation House from “The Notebook” in South Carolina
The Notebook isn’t just a movie for people who love Nicholas Sparks novels and tear-jerky romantic dramas. It’s also a favorite with those of us who love houses!
Ryan Gosling played Noah Calhoun, a poor boy courting a rich girl named Allie. It’s hard not to swoon a little when Noah shows her the crumbling plantation house of his dreams and promises, “I’m gonna buy it one day and fix it up.”
A reader whose family once owned the house on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina shared some of the history behind it with me. Not only that, but she sent old photos showing how it’s changed since it was built in the 1800s. Take a look!
Note: This post contains affiliate links that may earn me commission.
You could say the house was a “fixer upper” when we first see it in the movie (above).
Noah pretty much single-handedly renovates the place and transforms it into this beaut (below):
Allie (Rachel McAdams) told him, “I want a white house with blue shutters.
And a room overlooking the river so I can paint. I want a big old porch that wraps around the entire house.”
He took her requests seriously, blue shutters and all.
And she appreciated his efforts! 🙂
The story is set in North Carolina, but most of the movie was shot in and around Charleston, SC.
Noah’s house in real life is Martins Point Plantation on Wadmalaw Island.
I believe the interior scenes of Noah’s house were filmed elsewhere.
He’s living there alone when Allie finally comes and sees the place.
Noah created a room where Allie could paint, as requested:
Allie paints on a second-story porch outside her art room, but where is it? On the back of the house?
You can see that the pillars are different on the porch below, so I’m not sure where they filmed the scene above.
A reader named Natalie wrote me about the history of the house.
The original owner was her great-great-grandfather, Francis Winfield Towles:
In the movie, Noah says the house was built in 1772.
But real estate records state the real plantation house dates to 1875.
The house originally had a second-story wraparound porch. During a later remodel, that was eliminated.
This screenshot from the DVD special features shows the facade filmmakers used to make it look run-down:
Here’s how it looked in the movie with some additional “wear” painted onto the exterior of the house:
The “before” version of the house looks like the way the real one did when it was built.
The filmmakers must have seen the historic photos because they recreated the original, second-story porch and all!
“Francis’s father, Daniel Freeman Towles, had the house built, but he died mining phosphate in Charleston around 1880 and his body was never recovered from the mine. He didn’t live in the house but for a few years before he died. Francis Winfield Towles lived it it from 1880 until his death in 1927, so most people know it as his home.
” -Natalie Towles Whiteman
Francis Towles made the South Carolina history books: “He is rightfully called the father of the truck growing industry in the South, for it was he who first demonstrated the feasibility and profit in growing and shipping vegetables to outside markets.”
” -Natalie Towles Whiteman
In the 1950s, after the exterior had been given a makeover, the house looked more like it does today:
It looked pretty much the same in the movie, as you can see below, but the pillars were replaced at some point:
They added the blue shutters for the movie and removed them after filming.
Here’s how the house looks today:
Thanks to Natalie’s cousin David Towles, who shared these photos.
In this one of the front porch you can see the ceiling is painted blue,
which is fitting for a gracious Southern home:
It sits on a private lane and you can’t access the property without permission.
According to Zillow, it has 5 bedrooms, 4,255 square feet, and sits on nearly 11 acres.
According to the Martins Point Plantation website:
The early history of Martins Point began in 1699 when the Lord Proprietors of the Carolina colony granted 200 acres on the North Edisto and Wadmalaw Rivers to John Jones, a gunsmith. In 1700, Landgrave Joseph Morton, the son of the first Royal Governor of Carolina, added the Jones tract to his 2,700 acre plantation known as Bears Bluff. The plantation has since been called Ladinwah, Bear-Bluff, Morton Town, and Point of Pines.
“In 1866, Daniel F. Towles, a Georgia farmer, purchased 1,200 acres of planting and marsh land that is now Martins Point. For more than 100 years, Martins Point was the center of agricultural commerce on Wadmalaw with its own currency, store and school.
“The Wadmalaw Island telephone system and post office were located at the plantation house. Crops and people were ferried to the mainland from the private Martins Point landing.”
The movie was based on a bestselling book by Nicholas Sparks (Amazon affiliate link).
Here’s how the house was described in the novel: “The house was built in 1772, making it one of the oldest, as well as largest, homes in New Bern. Originally it was the main house on a working plantation, and he had bought it right after the war ended and had spent the last eleven months and a small fortune repairing it.”
BTW, If you’re curious about Boone Hall Plantation (Allie’s house), I wrote about it here.
I was fascinated to learn that its grand avenue of oaks provided the inspiration for Twelve Oaks in GWTW.
I also wrote about the Black River Plantation House that posed as the assisted living quarters for Noah and Allie here:
The DVD has some great special features on it for “Notebook” fans (Amazon affiliate link):
Just make sure you’ve got a box of tissues handy!
Thanks to Natalie Towles Whiteman and Daniel Towles for photos of their family’s former property!
To see more current photos of the house: Martins Point Plantation, Tristan Rosier,
Movie Locations, and Taylor Rae Photography.
Self-Guided Tour of The Notebook Film Locations in Charleston
The Notebook – do you love it or hate it? For me, a great love story with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams is definitely a win. When I started planning our trip to Charleston, South Carolina, seeing some of The Notebook film locations was at the top of my to-do list. There are four main filming locations around Charleston, South Carolina that you can visit (aka not private property). It took me a full day to see them all, so make sure to budget enough time!
Allie’s Summer Home
Allie’s summer home was filmed at Boone Hall Plantation. You can take a tour of the inside of the mansion as well as the entire Boone Hall Plantation grounds. There is a lot of historical significance here, so much sure you set aside enough time to look around. The original slave cabins dating back to 1790 are still on-site to tour and learn from. A large garden in front of the mansion is alive and well. The Cotton Gin house built in the 1850s, a brick smokehouse built-in 1750, the beautiful Avenue of Oaks planted in 1743, and more can be seen while visiting the Boone Hall Plantation.
Boone Hall Plantation is about a 30-minute drive from Charleston and costs $26/adult to visit.
Inside Allie’s Summer Home – The Notebook Film Locations
The inside of Allie’s summer home was filmed at Williams Mansion, which used to be known as Calhoun Mansion. Williams Mansion is located at 16 Meeting Street in Charleston. As well as seeing the inside of Allie’s Summer Home, the tour will show you what being part of the wealthiest class in Charleston would have felt like. Admission is $17/person and tours are on the hour and half-hour.
Rowboat Scene with the Swans
The rowboat scene in The Notebook was located at Cypress Gardens. This was my favorite spot to tour, and I would definitely visit again. You have the opportunity to take a self-guided boat tour, which goes through the same area that Noah and Allie explored. Unfortunately, you won’t see the swans.
Fun Fact: Swans are not native to this area. In order to train the swans to follow the boat, they brought them in a month prior to shooting.
Cypress Gardens is a 45-minute drive from Charleston and has a $10/person admission.
Allie and Noah’s First Date – The Notebook Film Locations
Head down King Street in Charleston to see the location of Allie and Noah’s first date, The American Theater. It is located at 446 King Street. The American Theater purpose when it opened in 1942 was as Charleston’s premier movie house. Its main use now is as an event venue.
Are you a big Notebook fan? Which locations do you want to see when you visit Charleston?
Head over to my blog post for tips on things to do and where to eat for an anniversary weekend in Charleston.
For help planning your trip to Charleston, South Carolina, email me at [email protected].
Game of Thrones. Notebook. (House of Starks) (А5, 96 sh., eco-leather hard cover, embossed, lined block, elastic band, storage sleeve)
Code: p177827
Bought 722 times
About product
Unique limited edition notebook edition from the creators of the most popular TV series of our time “GAME OF THRONES”.
Official license from HBO. The cover is made of thermal material imitating leather with embossing. The cover itself features the coat of arms of House STARK. On the flyleaf is the story of each family member. The notebook is fastened with an elastic band ala “moleskin”. inside lined block on high quality paper.
Features
- Series:
- Game of Thrones Universe
- Section:
- Exclusive Notebooks
- Publisher:
- Eksmo
- Age limit:
- 16+
- 3
- Number of pages:
- 192
- Binding:
- Hard (7)
- Format:
- 172×212 mm
- Weight:
- 0.40 kg for review
Tamila Smolyaninova
Review of purchase
on book24.ruExcellent series. I was lucky to buy several notebooks at such a price that I simply cannot not write a review.
A large 96-sheet notebook, high-quality leather-like cover, interesting thematic inserts at the beginning and end, but all pages are clean, without drawings. It looks stylish and expensive, suitable for a gift to a fan of the series, and not only. I liked that the line is quite “narrow”, I don’t like it when 10 lines on the page only fit. Natalia Stebunova
Feedback on the purchase of
on book24.ruThe order is very well packed, the notebook is very pleasant to the touch, solid, high quality paper! I will use it with pleasure, I took it for training, because I constantly study somewhere and listen to something, I make a lot of records) I recommend it!
Alexey Mamilov
High-quality notebook, thick smooth paper. An insert with portraits of family members and a short reference about each, a pocket made of thick paper on the inside.
The cover is made under the skin, on the front side there is an embossing of the emblem of the house, on the reverse side – the motto. Great gift for PLIO fans) Marina Khalkecheva
Review of the purchase of
on book24.ruAmazing thing!!! I have been looking at this notebook for a long time, especially the Stark house is my favorite house, but the price bites 🙂 Thank you for sometimes lowering prices so that you can profitably buy your Wishlist) Excellent quality and, importantly, pages in the LINE! And then almost everything is either on the dot or in the cage0074
Review of purchase
on book24.ruExcellent magazine, I like everything about it, the quality is amazing, the feeling is excellent, I have not started writing in it yet, but the pages are of excellent quality. Inside there is a lot of information about the Stark house, if you love Game of Thrones, you will definitely like it.
Notebook “Game of Thrones. House Targaryen” in Engels: 51-item: free shipping [link]
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