Charleston ... living history

Charleston SC Skyline from the Harbor    click on picture to 'imbiggen'

Often called the Holy City because of the vast number of churches here, you can see two of the oldest here in the skyline photo.  The white one on the left is St. Michael's and that is St. Phillip's on the right.  It's said that the old 'red light' district was located where it was because it was the only street in the city where you couldn't see a steeple and so the 'eye of God' wasn't looking down on you.

And for all that the good Christian folk of the Southern Bible belt would like that to be the way everybody viewed Charleston, it must be be remembered that Charleston was a port city from the very beginning.  Sailors are more well known for their ability to swill copious amounts of alcohol than they are for their piety.  It's also a college town.  That being the case Charleston has an equal, if not greater reputation as a party town.  It's been said that Charleston is an historic city with a drinking problem ... but I've seen T shirts in the shops downtown that say no, it's a party town with a history problem ;)

The reason some consider the 'historic' part a problem is because if you happen to own a building in the historic part of the city, you can't so much as paint your shutters without permission from the BAR (Board of Architectural Review ... I think).  They take their history serious here, but it does make for some fabulous sight seeing.

 The Provost Building.  Among other things it was used as a dungeon where they incarcerated pirates.  It's also where Charleston's Tea Party (not so big or famous as Boston's) was launched from.

The Customs House

 

St. Phillips Church bathed in the golden rays of sunset.  It has an awesome old graveyard, as does St. Phillips.  Many of the gravestone shots I post from time to time come from one or the other.

I can, and have, spend all day walking around just looking at the old buildings

The Big Guns

The best part though is when you get to the Battery. These cannons were collected from the Cival and Revolutionay Wars and placed around the park.  The little land mass that's barely visable in this photo that the cannon is pointed toward is Fort Sumpter.

On East Battery and on up Bay St. are all the old Antebellum mansions.  I ooh and aah and snap pictures.  They are just so beautiful, and it seems each has it's own story.  There are walking tours, and carriage tours, garden tours and pub tours, and haunted tours ... just about any type of tour you can imagine and they will all give you interesting bits of history. 

 

  

Tour lore has it that when this house was being built the husband wanted one style, the wife another.  They couldn't agree, but being very wealthy they decided they could have both.  It's called the Compromise House

This is the DeSaussure House, located right on the Battery where Mary Boykin Chestnut watched the first shots fired in the Cival War (or, as it's known in the South, the war of Northern Aggression) and wrote her Diaries.  A Diary from Dixie, is about a southern woman's perspective of the events and people of the Civil War.  I found it on the internet ... fascinating reading.

And there you have it, a virtual mini tour of Charleston, and a new look at the theme 'Well aged'.

 Go visit Carmi @ Written Ink to see more on this theme, or add your own interpretation.