Glimpses of Charleston

A local's eye view

Street/Park Scenes

Lowcountry shrimp is the best there is! There is nothing like getting it fresh off the boat, using the nifty red tool to peel and de-vein them, and then boiling them up in a Frogmore stew or making a shrimp cocktail. Mmmmmmm...
The pretty streetscape can be found on one of the smallest streets in Charleston -- Short Street. Yes, really.
The top of the facades along King Street on a beautiful Charleston day.
This beautiful Charleston cut-through is the eastern end (Church Street side) of Longitude Lane.
Market Hall is the striking front end of Charleston City Market, and one of the most visited sites in Charleston. In 1788,  Charles Cotesworth Pinckney gave the land to the City with the stipulation that the land must forever remain in use as a market.
Philadelphia Alley, as it is now called, is a wonderful cut-through between Queen and Cumberland Street. It's had four or five names over the years, including Cow Alley and Duelers Alley. Each would have posed a challenge when walking along its path, but neither cows nor duelers are likely to be found there today.
This beautiful entryway on King Street leads to one of the most beautiful walkways in downtown Charleston. It is part of the Gateway Walk -- a larger pedestrian path that cuts across a wide section of the historic peninsula. It's worth finding it and taking a stroll!
A beautiful view along State Street. The house on the left, built as a residence c. 1816. As this neighborhood near the wharves declined by the turn of the 20th century, it was used as a warehouse. It was restored as a residential house in 1950.
These cool entryways can be found on Society Street, near the beautiful Harris Teeter on East Bay-- which occupies a former downtown train station.
Philadelphia Alley is perhaps the most famous of Charleston's cool alleys. It has had a number of names over the years, but was named for the city of Philadelphia in 1811 after it had sent generous financial aid to help Charleston after a large fire in 1810.
Lodge Alley is one of Charleston's cool alleys and cut-throughs. Running between State and East Bay Streets, it's a great way to get where you're going.
Dave's Carryout, on the corner of Rutledge Avenue and Morris Street in the Cannonborough/Elliotborough neighborhood, is the source of some pretty excellent fried shrimp (among other things). Far from fancy, it's worth seeking out. In 2016, along with restaurants such as Hall's Chophouse, FIG and Charleston Grill, Zagat's named it one of Charleston's best restaurants!
Burbage's Self-Service Grocery has been serving the community around Broad Street since 1948. For local residents, it's a beloved store where you can go in and order a spicy (or mild) BBQ sandwich, pick up some other great and/or needed stuff, and then just say, "charge it to my account" and head on home. 
The Bend on Church Street is an iconic Charleston spot. One of the cool things about it are the cement posts on the right, which were used to tie up boats when it was Vanderhorst Creek.
This look at Charleston past and the possible watery future was created by David Boatwright -- the artist perhaps best known for creating Hominy Grill's "Grits are good for you" mural. You can find this one on East Bay Street, just below Calhoun Street.
This beautiful fountain can be found in one of Charleston’s very cool pocket parks — Allan Park on Ashley Avenue.
This country looking lane is actually a driveway on Tradd Street, in the heart of the the South of Broad neighborhood.
A glimpse down Legare Street, with the Sword Gate on the left.
When the park around Colonial Lake was renovated in 2016, a line of palmetto trees was added along Rutledge Avenue. Each has these wonderful flowering plants on their trucks -- happy and beautiful.
This house on King Street has interesting plantings in its pots  -- including these cacti.  The owner of this house, Marx Cohen, built it in about 1844 but didn't all that much time to enjoy it. He became a distinguished officer in the Confederate army, but was killed by an artillery shell at the Battle of Bentonville, NC in 1865.
An old crepe myrtle tree against the backdrop of an even older house (built in 1742) on Tradd Street. The crepe myrtle is the longest blooming plant in Charleston.
This beautiful corner is the intersection of Tradd and Church Streets. It traces its roots to well before the American Revolution. George Washington even slept just a few houses up the street on a presidential visit to Charleston in 1791.
First painted around 1892 to advertise a haberdashery, located on Church Street the Charleston Hat Man is made up of 16 hats of 12 different  styles.
This pretty scene at the corner of Queen and Logan Streets is right across from the Queen Street Grocery -- one the best sources in Charleston for crepes and other great food.
Theodora Park is one of Charleston's cool pocket parks -- located right across from the Gaillard Center on George Street. This stand-alone gate by Phillip Simmons honors all the contributions he made to the beauty of Charleston.
One of the great things about Charleston is that there is so much to see, photograph, sketch, or paint. Here a class is taking in the wonderful columns of St. Philip's Church.
Oysters are eaten in many ways in Charleston -- raw, roasted, and fried to name a few. The shells are now often recycled to help future generations of oysters. I've never seen them turned in a wreath before. You can find this one on Queen Street. Beautiful.
This classic view of Charleston can be had by standing outside of Washington Square, named in honor of George Washington, and looking down Meeting Street to the Four Corners of Law.
Just off King Street, running between John and Hutson Streets, is Hutson Alley. This cool cut-through is not only a good shortcut, but has a great selection of restaurants in it. 
Geo. C. Birlant & Co. was founded in 1922 and has been at the same location on King Street since 1932. While known as a seller of antiques, they also create the Charleston Battery Bench -- whose dark green slates and beautiful cast ironwork can be found all over the city and in private gardens. (Glimpses has no connection to the company, apart from having a bench at home.)
This beautiful wall and door are part of the Dock Street Theater, the oldest theater in America. This tableau is along Queen Street.
A row of pretty porches on Limehouse Street. Charleston is known for the houses having "piazzas," but as these are on the fronts on the houses, they are just porches. A piazza is a type of porch, but not all porches are piazzas.
Before being renamed in honor of the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, this open space at the heart of downtown was called Citadel Green or Citadel Square. The pink building was the original site of the Citadel.
Some beautiful illuminated February blossoms set off by the grand house, a beautiful live oak tree, a wonderful iron fence -- all of which you can find at the corner of Lenwood Boulevard and South Battery.
A beautiful winter rose against the backdrop of the very first house to be built on Murray Boulevard. 
Despite it being the first week of February, things are starting to bloom in Charleston. The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is actually the second brownstone cathedral on that site. The first, the Cathedral of Saint John and Saint Finbar, was built in 1854 but burned down in 1861. The building of the new one, which was built on the foundations of the first, opened in 1907.
This fenced-in outcropping is the last visible remnant of a Revolutionary War structure  called the Horn Work. Part of Charleston's colonial fortifications, amazingly the Horn Work was a tabby fort the size of Fort Sumter.  Covering over 5 acres, it had 18 cannons, and was surrounded on the north side by a moat 10 yards wide.
Charleston's first "skyscraper," the Peoples Building on Broad Street was built in 1910-11 and is guarded by two leopards.
South Adger's Wharf is one of Charleston's beautiful cobblestone streets. These houses were once the offices and warehouses servicing the trading ships that sailed into Charleston. The empty ships would come into Charleston with the cobblestones as ballast. As the ballast was not needed once their goods were loaded, the stones would be left in Charleston and used to "pave" the streets.  The streets closest to the harbor, such as this one, were paved first.
The Four Corners of Law at the intersection of Broad and Meeting Streets is one of the iconic spots in Charleston. Here you can see the buildings representing Federal (the US Post Office and Courthouse) and God's (St. Michael's Church) law.