Jeff McNeely – Drayton Hall Preservation Trust

Jeff McNeely still remembers the beer tankard that dates back to the late 17th century. Buried for a few hundred years in an old well on the grounds of Drayton Hall, it was only recently uncovered by the preservation team’s archaeologists, dirt-caked and impossibly intact. McNeely wasn’t the one who pulled it from the ground, but as director of facilities and Landscape at Drayton Hall Preservation Trust, he was there for it, close enough to the discovery to feel its weight. It’s a fitting glimpse into his role at Drayton Hall: not leading the preservation work itself but standing shoulder to shoulder with the people who do, keeping the modern structures and grounds running so that history stays undisturbed.

Drayton Hall is one of the few plantation houses in America to survive intact through both the Revolutionary and Civil wars, an example of Palladian architecture perched along the Ashley River outside Charleston, South Carolina. It has never been modernized. There is no running water in the house, no bathrooms, no HVAC system humming behind the walls. Drayton Hall Preservation Trust, the nonprofit organization McNeely joined in 2022, exists to keep it that way, preserving the site’s raw, unaltered character while still welcoming the public onto its 125 acres (the organization manages a total of 660 acres).

A career built on preservation

McNeely’s path into this work began in 1998, and over more than two decades, he has moved through both private- and public-sector preservation roles before landing at Drayton Hall in 2022. His title points to facilities and landscape, not the historic house itself, but the two are inseparable at a site like this. The job suggests a narrow focus; the reality is closer to three jobs stitched into one.

“I oversee the modern facilities and work with our team on the preservation stuff,” McNeely says.

He describes himself as part project manager, part director, part gardener, a description that captures how fluid the role really is. His background blends hands-on horticulture with formal training in small business management, a combination that proves essential in an organization where budgets are tight, and every dollar has to work twice as hard. Drayton Hall Preservation Trust operates with 18 full-time employees and dozens of volunteers, and McNeely’s own landscape and facilities staff numbers just four people—including himself—responsible for maintaining a historic property that never stops demanding attention.

Balancing daily operations with historic ground

Nothing about maintaining Drayton Hall follows a conventional facilities playbook. The historic house falls to the preservation team, which means McNeely’s infrastructure work happens around its edges, in the modern structures, utilities, and visitor spaces that support the site without touching the house’s original fabric.

“The Historic house only has minimal electrical service for Emergency Lighting and Security purposes,” McNeely says.

Beyond that, the property is defined by restraint. Roughly 100 acres have been cleared to give the trust constant sightlines and control over the preservation of the house, but the ground itself is largely off-limits to disturbance. The recent archaeological dig of the historic well, the one that turned up the beer tankard , reinforced just how much remains unexplored, and McNeely estimates that less than 5 percent of the land has ever been dug into. New pathways cannot simply be added to historic grounds on a whim; instead, modern conveniences like parking, restrooms, and visitor facilities are concentrated near the visitor center, well away from the house itself, squarely within McNeely’s territory.

The landscape side carries its own complexity. His team manages invasive shrubs, protects centuries-old live oaks, and keeps a watchful eye on a pond where water moccasins are frequently active. Wild hogs, squirrels, armadillos, and resident alligators all share the grounds, and this year brought an unexpected addition: nesting bald eagles. It’s a job that requires equal parts groundskeeper, wildlife observer, and diplomat with the elements.

“The drive I look for on the landscape staff is someone who doesn’t mind getting sweaty and dirty,” McNeely says.

That mindset extends to how he manages the realities of a Lowcountry climate. Rather than pushing his team through brutal afternoon heat, McNeely built flexibility into the workday itself, starting early and calling it quits when conditions turn dangerous.

“The grass will be here tomorrow, and you can mow it then,” McNeely says.

Trust & opportunity in a small team

Recruiting and retaining skilled landscape and facilities staff has grown more difficult industry-wide, something McNeely feels acutely with a team as lean as his. To compete, he leans on what Drayton Hall can offer that a larger, more corporate environment cannot: a slower pace, genuine flexibility, and a workplace culture built on trust rather than oversight.

“There is a lot of flexibility here, and I try to sell that,” McNeely says.

Having previously worked within a school district’s more regimented structure and a hyper-observant, well respected Historic Preservation firm, he sees the calm of Drayton Hall as a real asset in interviews, one he uses deliberately to attract people who might otherwise overlook a nonprofit historic site. He also points to opportunities for staff to cross into preservation work alongside that team, from washing recovered artifacts to spending time in the field with the trust’s own archaeologists, since Drayton Hall maintains that expertise in-house rather than contracting it out.

McNeely runs his team with a light hand, preferring to delegate rather than hover. He credits much of that instinct to lessons learned from those around him, including his wife’s three decades in HR and the institutional memory of a CEO who has spent 20 years at Drayton Hall.

“I am not a micromanager; all my staff have earned my trust,” McNeely says.

The next generation of preservationists

McNeely is already thinking beyond the day-to-day, toward how Drayton Hall can help train the professionals who will eventually take on this kind of work. He has expressed interest in developing fellowship opportunities focused on landscaping, gardening, and broader preservation training, a natural extension of a workplace that already encourages staff to move fluidly between his facilities operations and the preservation team’s projects. Community events like the December oyster roast and a historical art show in downtown Charleston each spring give staff additional ways to connect with the mission outside of routine grounds and facilities work.

Proactive maintenance runs through nearly everything McNeely’s team takes on, from termite remediation at the visitor center to infrastructure repairs planned well before they become emergencies. That forward-looking approach, paired with close coordination with the preservation team and local emergency services on fire safety, has helped a small facilities operation manage a workload that would overwhelm a less-organized team. It’s also earned the group steady praise from board members and visitors alike, a reminder that the daily grind of mowing, repairing, and maintaining ultimately shapes how every guest experiences the site.

For McNeely, the appeal of the job has never been complicated. It’s a chance to support something rare, to mentor people who share that instinct, and to keep the modern systems running quietly enough so history stays in front. Whether he’s coordinating fire safety planning with local emergency services, walking the grounds with an eye for invasive growth, or simply making the case to a promising job candidate, his approach stays consistent: patience, trust, and a steady respect for a property that has already outlasted so much.