Born and raised in Lake City, South Carolina, Darla Moore is a true daughter of the Palmetto state. Having graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in political science, her fondest memories still recall times spent on her grandparents’ farm as the most peaceful and happiest times of her life.
With curiosity and an innate sense of determination, she went on to earn her M.B.A. from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., before beginning her illustrious career in New York’s fast-paced financial industry at Chemical Bank; where she specialized in bankruptcy takeovers.
Moore then moved to the private sector where she became the head of Mesa Inc., an oil and natural gas company founded by T. Boone Pickens. Once at the helm, Moore oversaw the company’s merger with Parker & Parsley Petroleum to form Pioneer Natural Resources; later serving as President of Rainwater Inc., one of the largest private investment banks in America and finally overseeing the restructuring of Columbia / HCA Healthcare before retiring in 2012.
The first woman on the cover of Fortune Magazine, Moore was aptly dubbed “The Toughest Babe in Business,” as well as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business.” Moore has also been recognized by Forbes, Working Woman, Worth, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN as a force within the old boys’ club that is banking and high finance.
However, it is Ms. Moore’s generosity and propensity to give back to her own community and beyond that has kept her in the hearts of many; reinventing herself from corporate raider to the principal investor in South Carolina and her hometown of Lake City. She gifted nearly $70 million dollars to the University of South Carolina’s School of Business, which was later renamed in her honor and is today the only business school in America named for a female business leader. Additionally, she is the proud founder of The Charleston Parks Conservancy, ArtFields, and Moore Farms Botanical Gardens which began as the Moore family farm and now serves as a place for horticultural research, education, and enjoyment.
7 Ladson Street, Charleston, South Carolina
In 1892, built along with its companion 5 Ladson Street to the east, this home stands as a testament to the exuberance that was the Queen Anne style in America; its design considered unusual and unique from the typically favored traditional architectural styles of Charleston’s lower peninsula. 7 Ladson Street employs traditional Victorian features such as a side hall floorplan issuing grand entertaining spaces and other Victorian iconography including asymmetry, turrets, and mixed building materials such as wood siding, stone, and tile.
Purchased by Darla Moore and her late husband Richard Rainwater in 2002, Moore set out with the assistance of acclaimed decorator Anthony “Tony” Ingrao to return the home to its original grandeur. Drawing inspiration from gilded age interiors, the home and collection bring together an extraordinary group of property that honors Ms. Moore’s keen eye and passion as an important American collector. Brought together over the course of a few short years, no expense was spared in sourcing examples that underscored the importance and sophistication of the last decades of the 19th Century. With exceptional examples of 18th and 19th Century paintings, furniture, and decorative arts, this collection inhabits a grand vision of elegance in a decidedly southern style.
