Glimpses of Charleston

A local's eye view

Street/Park Scenes

A beautiful morning on King Street following Hurricane Dorian.
A classic view of St. Philip's and Church Street. Not only is the steeple beautiful, it one served as the last lighthouse in a range of lighthouses used to guide sailors into Charleston.
A beautiful Charleston evening as seen from the corner of Queen and State Streets.
In the heart of downtown Charleston, you will find the City Market and Sheds. This is one of the sheds.
A dramatic scene along Broad Street in Charleston.
Art shows up in all sorts of forms, sizes and manner all around Charleston. This mural can be found on the side of a hair salon on Liberty Street.
Charleston is full of beautiful little scenes. This cool gate and wall can be found on Bull Street.
Charleston cobblestones and crepe myrtles at the corner of Chalmers and Church Streets.  If you turned to the right on Church Street, you'd have a great view of St. Philip's steeple as you walked by the French Huguenot Church.
Slightly off the beaten path, Hutson Alley -- running between Hutson and John Streets -- is home to a row of restaurants.
The fourth oldest church in Charleston (1811), Second Presbyterian on Meeting Street, has a distinctive steeple.
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.)