[ATMachine]

Am heading off next week (well, leaving on Saturday) for a family vacation in Charleston, South Carolina--the heart of slavery and secession and evil stuff like that (from my Unionist point of view ). Looking forward to lots of sightseeing and tours of cool architecture.

Any suggestions on what I should see?

[bulldog]

I've never been to Charleston, SC, but do enjoy your self and take lots of pics for all of us to drool over . When you come through Georgia, think of your friendly Bulldog

[Lucien21]

Remember and do the knobbly knees dance.

[Jelena]

Pictures, please pictures ATMachine.

[ATMachine]

I can't promise pictures from everywhere (a lot of the stuff to see in Charleston is tours inside of old houses and plantations, which don't let you use flash photography). But I'll see what I can do.

[Melanie68]

Digital photos (if you have a digital camera that is)! You can fuss with them in a picture editor after that.

Or if you have a traditional 35mm, you can just get your pictures on a CD (instead of hard copies) and edit them. Just take the disk back in to your favorite photo developer and use one of those machines.

And, knobbly knees dance?!?!?

[Lucien21]

[ATMachine]

I just got in yesterday afternoon from a week in Charleston. We saw a bunch of old historic houses and buildings, which was really nice. But the weather was unbelievably HOT! I'm from friggin' Florida and even I couldn't believe the humidity. We were hoping for a nice sea breeze from the harbor, but even the wind was hot! Oh well, I survived--and didn't even get sunburned.

All of the historic houses we entered didn't allow photography, even with digital cameras. So I can't bring you any photos of the interiors, sadly. But you can still enjoy the exterior photos we took.

We were hoping to go to a few extra places, like the home of the H. L. Hunley submarine. The Hunley, built by the Confederacy during the US Civil War, was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat--and itself went down immediately afterward. The submarine was powered by eight men turning cranks and pushing foot pedals, and the thing was lit by candlelight! Sadly, the museum where its remains are stored was closed when we wanted to go.

We also didn't see Fort Sumter, the site of the first battle in the American Civil War. The reason? The fort is on an island in the middle of Charleston harbor, and we didn't fancy being on a barren rock, directly under the sun, getting battered by the horribly warm breeze. Oh well. Maybe if we ever go in winter...

Photos below!




The Old Exchange building, used for goods storage and discussions of trade (Charleston is a port city, after all.) During the American Revolution (or War of American Independence to those abroad), the brick cellars beneath it were used by the British to hold Patriot prisoners. After the war, when President George Washington visited Charleston, he danced with a lot of ladies up on the second floor drawing room (one guide claimed the number was over 200!)


The Joseph Manigault house. This was built in the 18th century by a member of a French Huguenot (Protestant) family, who fled to America to avoid religious persecution by the Catholic kings of France.


The front yard of the Manigault house.


The back of the house.


The Aiken-Rhett house. This was built before the Civil War and has never been restored; consequently, the wallpaper inside was peeling everywhere, and the gilt mirrors were looking rather spotty. Of course they didn't show that in the advertisements! At least it looks rather nice from the outside...


The tomb of John C. Calhoun. Calhoun was a famous US Senator from South Carolina during the early 19th century, and was a very important political figure. He was also Andrew Jackson's vice president, but had to leave office because of his political leanings--he advocated for South Carolina to leave the USA as early as the 1830's, over the rather dull matter of high taxes on imports! For that reason, he was seen as a hero by the South Carolinians when they took up his idea during the Civil War.


The main house at Middleton Place plantation. This was originally the guest house of the plantation; it was converted into the main building after Union troops burnt down the original main house during the war.






The Edmonston-Alston house. This was a rather nice place built in the early 19th century. Notice that the ceiling molds above all three balconies have different designs!


Me at the Edmonston-Alston house.








St. Philip's Church. This congregation is the oldest in Charleston; a St. Philip's of some sort has existed since the late 17th century! The current building was built in the early 19th century as a near-exact replica of the second St. Philip's (destroyed by fire), which was built 100 years earlier.




Inside St. Philip's Church.




The Nathaniel Russell house. Another nice early 19th century building.


The Heyward-Washington house. During a week-long visit to Charleston, George Washington was given this place to reside in by the city fathers.

A lot of the houses we visited were arranged in a similar way. On the ground floor would be a private den for the family's use, a dining room, and perhaps a music room (often with a harp and a rectangular piano). The second floor (first floor to Brits) would have the drawing room (used for parties and soirees), a card-playing/gambling/smoking room for the men, and perhaps a separate ballroom if the owners were wealthy. The third floor contained most of the bedrooms, although one or two would usually be on the second story. Children lived on the third floor, usually raised by black governesses, until they were 13, at which time they were allowed to eat downstairs with their parents.

Kitchens were separate from the main house, as there was a major risk of fire from the heat used for cooking. Most of the houses we saw no longer had the kitchens on the grounds, but the Heyward-Washington place still had an intact kitchen building in the rear.

More in the next post...

[ATMachine]

St. Michael's Church, the oldest church building in the city.


This sign was inside the foyer of St. Michael's.












The interior of St. Michael's features some masterful woodcarving, and a beautiful stained-glass window. The original-size photos on my digital camera are so huge you can read everything carved on the left and right of the altar.






The main door, side door, and pipe organ of St. Michael's. Those gray plaques mounted on the walls are actually tombstones of people who were buried in the church.




Pew #43, the largest in St. Michael's. Washington sat there when he went to church during his visit.






Calhoun Mansion. This was built after the Civil War by the richest man in Charleston (who presciently invested his money as pounds sterling in British banks during the war, and bought up lots of land in Charleston as well. This kept him from going bankrupt as most Southern gentry did at the end of the war, when Confederate dollars became worthless).

The original builder was not of the Calhoun family; rather, his daughter married into it and lived in the house with her husband.

Most of the furnishings in this house were sold during the Depression. The walls, floors and ceilings have been expertly restored, though. The current owner has filled the house with his own eclectic collection of art from around the world. So, going in the place is rather like stepping into the old style of private museum collections popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.


Gas lanterns like this one were everywhere in Charleston.


These tiles at the front gate are indicative of the wealth of the builder.


This street is known as "Rainbow Row" due to the bright colors of the houses on it. The green house in the picture was for sale at the time we arrived (you can barely see the sign through the tree).




This yellow building houses a Confederate museum (which we never did go in). Beneath it is the Old City Market, a long thin stretch of small shops and vendors' tables which goes on for several blocks. Needless to say, we bought a lot of cool junk there.




The old Powder Magazine. This was where gunpowder was stored during the early 18th century, until a new magazine was built. Interesting note: this building had a pre-1801 Union Jack hanging outside (the one without the diagonal red stripes).


The Dock Street Theater. The very day we walked there, it had just closed down for a two-year renovation process!


A fountain near the Charleston harbor. It seemed to have sprung a leak when I came; water was dripping down into the recess beneath the fountain, a problem exploited by lots of little children.






A statue of John C. Calhoun in Marion Square. He really was popular here (just for a note, Marion Square lies on Calhoun Street!)


For a reference of scale: me in front of Calhoun's statue.

I also picked up some neat prints of 18th-19th century maps (I like to collect old maps of Florida; most of them are laughably inaccurate). One in particular featured "East and West Florida" (East Florida extended to the Apalachicola River, while West Florida stretched all the way to New Orleans and the Mississippi River). Plus Georgia included what is now Alabama and Mississippi. (It was a common practice after the Revolution for states to extend their northern and southern borders westward in the hope of claiming more western territory, but the federal government eventually decreed that the land would be made into new states.) The map in question currently hangs on my bedroom wall.

[bulldog]

WOW ATMachine Awesome pictures. Thanks so much for putting them in here so we can all look at them. They are beautiful.

[Melanie68]

ATM, you've never posted a pic of yourself before (thanks!) but having looked at your avatars (when many of them have been Guybrush), I unreasonably thought you'd have blonde hair.

The architecture there is gorgeous. When I would vacation with my parents, we'd do a lot of the historical sites (Philadelphia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Mass.) so I have a soft spot for areas like this.

[Jelena]

ATMachine
Thanks for posting pictures from your holiday! It's great to get to see parts of the world I most likely never will visit.