A local's eye view
This handsome entrance is for the house at 78 Church Street. Originally a separate house from 76 Church, they have been combined into a single residence now. Significant in that combination is that 76 Church is where Dubose Heyward wrote Porgy — which was later turned in the opera Porgy and Bess.
While it wasn’t used to communicate with satellites, the tower of St. Philip’s Church was part of another form of communication system from 1893 until 1915. The steeple held the rear light in the Fort Sumter Range Lights — which were used to guide ships through main channel of Charleston Harbor. The front light was at Fort Sumter and the rear light was in the church tower. The system is still in operation today, with the rear light now situated in a tower built for that purpose in the harbor.
Being on the walkway in the back of Joe Riley, Jr. Waterfront Park is is a bit like being in a pointillist painting, or somewhere in France. Waterfront Park, one of the jewels of Charleston, is named after the long time mayor of Charleston (he served 10 terms — 40 years!) who conceived of the park and fought until it became a reality.
“The Pink House” on Chalmers Street is one of the oldest houses in Charleston and one of the oldest structures in South Carolina. Built some time before 1712 out of pinkish Bermuda stone, it got its name from the stone’s pinkish hue, not the color of its paint.
This little pink house, c. 1750, set back from Tradd Street is certainly eye-catching, but did you know the potted flowers and plants aren’t real? Shhhhh….
You can find this pretty compound on “Little” Lamboll Street. An open passage on the first floor clearly separated the original two tenement structures, but it now functions as a single family house.
The Centenary Methodist Church on Wentworth Street was designed by E. B. White, the famed Charleston architect… not the creator of Charlotte’s Web who shares the same initials and last name.
This beautiful garden can be found on Tradd Street, fronting a house built in 1807. The site on which this house was built was originally owned by Robert Squibb, the author the The Gardener’s Calendar, a seminal work on which fruits and vegetables could grow in the region — which was a pretty important thing in that era. The 208 page book is still in print!
This handsome fire station at Meeting and Wentworth Streets was one of three built to replace a central station that had been destroyed in the earthquake of 1886.