Glimpses of Charleston

A local's eye view

Houses/Buildings/Gates

Rainbow Row, one of the iconic spots in Charleston, is the largest cluster of connected Georgian houses in the United States. 
A view from behind the columns of Randolph Hall in the heart of the College of Charleston. Built in 1828-29, it is one of the oldest college buildings still in use in the United States.
While this beautiful Charleston house may look like a country cottage, it is right in the middle of downtown on Montegu Street.
Charleston single houses have amazing piazzas, which is the name for their specific type of side porch.  Porches are the broad classification. So all piazzas are porches, but not all porches are piazzas. Got it?
The rising sun illuminating the Isaac Jenkins Mikell House, which has gotten a lot of attention recently on the TV show,  Southern Charm (or so I'm told). But, before it was restored as a private residence, it served at the public library for about 30 years.
This gorgeous gate and entryway on King Street are so inviting. While South of Broad is full of such beautiful sights, it's hard to believe that not so long ago that just two doors up from this spot was a gas station!
Restoring the historic structure of Charleston is a crucial, painstaking and sometimes unplanned task. This building on King Street literally went from being a vibrant restaurant one day to closed and requiring stabilization and restoration the next. It's not an insignificant undertaking, and having owners willing to treat their properties with the care and respect they deserve makes Charleston the wonderful place that it is.
This pretty pink house on King Street is just steps from White Point Garden and the Battery.
There are a number of checkerboard sidewalks and entryways in Charleston. This eye-catching one can be found on Legare Street.
This eclectic house on "Big" Lamboll Street was built by the prolific Patrick O'Donnell in the 1850's. It's distinctly different in style than its larger neighbors.
Charleston houses come in all colors and sizes. You can find this little one on Gibbes Street, next to a really big one.
Even when buttoned up in preparation of a hurricane potentially coming to Charleston, St. Michael's Church is majestically beautiful. The oldest religious building in the city, construction of this church building was completed in 1761. It's certainly seen, and weathered, quite a few storms and hurricanes.
Despite the expectation that Hurricane Florence is going to treat Charleston relatively well, some of the buildings and houses are buttoning up. This is Charleston City Hall,  which was built in the early 1800’s as one of the original branches of the First Bank of the United States. It later became Charleston’s City Hall in 1818. May it last another 200 years.
This Charleston house on Lamboll Street is quite striking. While not particularly significant, compared to many of its neighbors, it sure is an eyeful
The Miles Brewton House (c. 1769) on King Street is one of the most significant buildings in Charleston and the United States. It's a National Historic Landmark, as its whole complex, complete with its dependency buildings, is considered to be the finest example of Georgian architecture remaining in America. During the Revolutionary War it served as the headquarters for British General Henry Clinton, and towards the end of the Civil War it was the Union army headquarters.
This cute pink house may be small (just over 1000 sq. ft.), but it's well situated. Located at the very bottom of King Street, if you walked out its front door and turned right, White Point Garden and the Battery would be right in front of you. Location, location, location...
Set well back from Tradd Street, the Bowles-Legare-Parker House (built c. 1797 -1801) used to have a view that ran down to the Ashley River. You can catch a glimpse of the house beyond its extremely large front garden through its distinctive iron fence made with crossed arrow pickets. This is a side view from Greenhill Street.
This beautiful house on King Street was built in 1791 by William Holmes, who had just married his step-sister, Margaret Edwards.  Just up the street from White Point Garden,  it was a pretty nice spot for the newlyweds.
After the landfill project that created the Low Battery and Murray Boulevard, this was the very first house built on the new Charleston land -- aptly for the originator of the project.
Built c. 1792, the gorgeous Charleston County Courthouse not only hosted George Washington, it was likely used as a model for the White House. It's architect, James Hoban, designed both.
As with this unusual gate on State Street, you can sometimes learn a lot about who or what is on its other side.  Charleston gates are very cool!
This beautiful house on the bricked portion of Church Street was built in 1794. Interestingly, the stucco still shows evidence of early lime wash and paint color. Cool window boxes too.
Built in about 1895 as a private residence, which it is now, Villa Margherita on South Battery served as a small, exclusive hotel for about 40 years. Among its guests were a number of US Presidents, Henry Ford and Alexander Graham Bell.
This well planted welcoming entrance can be found on Concord Street, across from Joe Riley Waterfront Park.  They have a beautiful view across the park near the Pilot's Pier out into the harbor. 
This beautiful set of houses on South Battery is anchored by the Stevens-Lathers House on the right. Housed within the building is the Battery Carriage Inn -- known not only for its great location across from White Point Garden, but for its collection of ghosts as well.  You can stay there, but  you never know who might join you.
This beautiful flag-waving house on Church Street was built in 1794 on the spot of the Fenwick Tenements, which burned down sometime before 1785. The tenements had been built by Edward Fenwick, of Fenwick Hall Plantation -- which is currently for sale for just under $9.0 million. 
This gate, inspired by the famous Sword Gate by Christopher Werner, was actually made for General Charles Pelot Summerall's plantation in Aiken, SC.  You can see his 4 stars and initials in the shield in the center of the gate. It now hangs at the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina and is, aptly, called the Summerall Gate. It now guards the entrance from the Citadel to Hampton Park.
This beautiful house on Montegu Street played host to General Robert E. Lee when he visited Charleston after the Civil War. He addressed some of the citizens of Charleston from the second floor balcony.
The Col. John Ashe House on South Battery was built circa 1782. Two hundred and thirty-three years later it became the most expensive house ever sold to that point  on the Charleston peninsula at $7.72 million. Not bad.
This house on Montegu Street looks like it is made out of large slabs of stone. But it is actually a brick house covered in a layer of stucco -- which is then scored to make it look like it is stacked stone. You can find this technique used all over Charleston. Sneaky, huh?
A classic Charleston tableau. Located at the corner of East and South Battery, the Louis Desaussure House -- the construction of which was completed about 1860 -- had a front row street to the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the start of the American Civil War.
The Cistern Yard, backed by the beautiful Randolph Hall, is the epicenter of the College of Charleston. Founded in 1770, it is the 13th oldest country in the United States and counts three signers of the Declaration of Independence (Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward) and three signers the United States Constitution (John Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney) among its founders. 
This very cool looking post revolutionary building is part of a small complex called Coates Row, which fronts on East Bay Street. Built to house commercial uses, it still does today.
There are so many wonderful houses in Charleston. This striking one is on Chapel Street in the tongue-twistingly named Mazyck-Wraggborough neighborhood.
The beautiful houses of Charleston come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. This smaller one on South Battery, tucked between two larger neighbors, is glowing in the early evening light.
The parade grounds and one of the barracks of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. Some of the locals and graduates call it "El Cid."
The Parker-Drayton House on Gibbes Street used to have an even better location. Before the area in front of it was filled, the Ashley River used to run by its garden.
The  Porters Lodge at the College of Charleston has three passages from George Street into the Cistern Yard. Two are pedestrian-sized, as seen in this photo, one can accommodate much larger vehicles as seen here. They are all gateways on to some incredible historic beauty.
The gorgeous Col. John Ashe House  (in the middle) was built, including its original iconic cupola, circa 1782. Located at 32 South Battery and facing White Point Garden, the views from the cupola and the incredible porches are spectacular.
This beautiful Charleston single house on Tradd Street is nicely decked out in the American, South Carolina and US Army flags. It's called a "single house" because it is only one room wide. No matter how big or small a single house may be, that is one of their main distinguishing characteristics.