From this bench in Waterfront Park you can see Shute’s Folly, a small, low lying island in the middle of Charleston Harbor. Originally used to house defensive fortifications for Charleston, the property was bought by Charlestonian Joseph Shute in 1746 — for which he seems to have been ridiculed.
Over time the island passed through a number of ownership hands, but retained the Folly name. It eventually became home to Castle Pinckney, which was originally built in 1797 and then demolished in 1804 by a hurricane. The masonry Castle Pinckney, whose remains can still be seen, was completed in 1808.
Unlike Seward’s Folly, which picked up the snappy new name of Alaska, this folly remains credited to poor Mr. Shute.