Charleston itself is the part that is built out on
the peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. This is the oldest area, and the area that
tourists focus on, like us. Most of the
time if you were to ask someone about Charleston, they would say it is where
the US Civil War started. This is true,
the first shots were at Ft. Sumter. More
on that later. After that, Charleston
played only a minor role in that war thanks to the Union blockading the
harbor. Not much of anything happened
after that. Charleston had a much larger
role in the American Revolution, although the Deep South is not much thought of
when we talk about gaining independence from England. Several instrumental battles were fought in
South Carolina though.
There are several things that draw people to visit
Charleston. One is the architecture. Because of limited space, the peninsula was
pretty much built out by 1850 or so, and most of those buildings are still
there. There are some stunning examples
of antebellum architecture, and a style that is unique to Charleston, the Single House.
This is the typical house in Charleston. The narrow end faces the street and the “front
door” does not go into the house. In
most places we would say it opens into a porch, but that would be incorrect to
say there. It is not a porch, nor is it
a veranda. It is called a piazza in
Charleston, because that sounds more cultured.
There are lots of windows and lots of open space to facilitate air flow. It gets wickedly humid in Charleston during
the summer.
Here the designers stuck windows wherever they
felt like it. I have no idea where the
floors are in relation to the windows on the long side of that house!
Charleston has an Old World feel, but with palm
trees everywhere.
Charleston was established in the late 1600s. This is a picture of the Pink House, which is
made of stone brought from Bermuda.
Construction on the house began in 1694, it is one of the oldest
buildings in the South. It has served as
everything from a tavern to attorneys’ offices.
This is the Powder Magazine, the oldest public
building in Charleston, built in 1713.
It was used to store gunpowder.
Doesn’t look like much but it has a pretty crafty design. There are only a few exterior doors. The walls are 3 feet thick at the base and
only a few inches thick at the top. Both
of these features are there to push an explosion upward and not outward. And the roof has a layer of sand built into
so if an explosion did occur, the sand would pour down and start putting the
fire out. Like I said, pretty crafty.
Charleston is nicknamed the Holy City because of
all the churches. And they are
everywhere! That one above is St. Philips
Episcopal church, which was built in 1836.
It gets a little confusing because St. Philips was built on the site of
St. Michael’s church, which burned down.
And this is the “new” St. Michael’s Episcopal
church. It was built in 1751, so new is
kind of a relative term.
One of the prettiest structures in Charleston, this
the French Huguenot church, home to the only Calvinist congregation in the
United States. Debbie and I both really
enjoyed the gothic style of this church, it was only two blocks from our hotel.
This was a block away from our hotel. It is the Circular Congregation church. Hard to appreciate from this photo, but it
was a round building. A very attractive
one at that. An interesting factoid is
that many of the churches do not have church bells. They were taken down because the metal was
needed for the war effort in the Civil War with the promise all the bells would
be replaced once the Confederacy was able to declare victory. I guess it’s just symbolic now, but they’re
still waiting some 150 years later.
We went on a carriage ride one afternoon. I highly recommend carriage rides, they’re a
lot of fun and very educational. We
learned a couple of things from our driver/guide. Back in the day, it was not acceptable to
display your wealth on the outside of your house. Opulence was expressed inside the house. But homeowners would make subtle efforts to
display the industry they worked in.
Notice the flowers around the outside of this
window. The owner of this house worked
in the cotton industry.
This gentleman worked in shipping, as evidenced by
the rope running down the sides of his door.
I don’t have a picture of it, but our guide also
pointed out that one can age houses by their siding. He showed us some features in the shape of
the siding and said certain shapes were not built after 1800. If we saw those, it was safe to assume a house was built in the 1700s and that it
still had the original bald cypress
siding!! It boggles my mind to imagine
natural materials exposed to the elements lasting that long.
We passed by a house that looked worse than this
one that was for sale. How much do you
think the above house is worth, as-is?
Did you guess $50,000? A good
try, but you need to add a zero. Houses
that are nearly at the state of condemnation sell for a half-million dollars
and will require at least that much to get back to a normal condition. Already at a normal condition? More than a million easily, and that’s for
less than 2000 square feet. Does it have
a driveway? That bumps it up to two
million.
Then there’s the process of doing *anything* at
all to the house. Charleston is ruled by
an Architectural Review Board. They have
a lot of power, but they are there to ensure Charleston keeps its historical
character. What that means is that if
you want to do anything to the outside of the house- for example paint your
shutters the exact same color they already are, just a fresh coat of paint- you
have to go get a permit from the ARB and jump through their hoops. Its probably crappy for residents, but it
does make sure Charleston stays what it is.
Every morning we were there, I got up at the crack
of dawn and walked around Charleston before the city really woke up, and while
it was relatively cool. One place I came
across was this, the Sword Gate House.
Those gates were built in 1838 and were meant for the city’s new Guard
House, but were never installed. They
were put on this private residence in 1849 and have been there ever since.
A relatively unique structure in Charleston, this
is the Farmers & Exchange Bank, built in 1854. The style is called Moorish Revival. Unfortunately it was impossible to get a shot
of the full building, but it was pretty neat.
Last bit of architecture, this is the City
Jail. It is currently being restored and
is actually home to the American College of the Building Arts, which focuses on
historic restorations. Another
interesting place, evidently they built it with zero plumbing- incoming or
sewage. During its use some 14,000
people died here, mostly of diseases like cholera.
Continued in Part 3, which an be found here
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