Beautiful Charleston

Charleston is a city that screams for days, not hours, to see all it's glory. Unfortunately, we're now on a schedule that includes hours, not days. I will go back! Charleston is a preserved city, while Savannah is a restored city.

Our AAA tour book had a couple of walking tours, so Les & I headed out to see how much we could see on foot.

The steeple of St. Michael's Episcopal Church was used as a target for British ship gunners during the Revolutionary War. So glad that they weren't very good shots! The pews inside are more like family boxes than individual pews. George Washington and Robert E. Lee sat in these pews.


This is a beautiful example of a 'single house' - meaning the house is a single room wide. The front door opens onto the porch, or piazza, rather than the main house. Many houses are built in this style, with the house sitting sideways to the street. The piazza would overlook the front yard (many yards have been turned into a place to park a car).

Tradd Street is lined with historical properties.



Just some examples of great homes.

15 Meeting Street. Aside from the brick basement, the rest of the house is cypress. The facade is covered with stucco which is scored to resemble stone. (This was a cheaper process than importing stone and was not uncommon.)

East Battery Street, taken from the walkway along Charleston harbor.

Chalmers street is the city's longest remaining cobblestone street, paved in 1760 with creek stones brought from Europe as ships' ballast. 17 Chalmers is the Pink house, which served as a tavern in Colonial days. Constructed about 1712, of Bermuda stone (a coral limestone), it has an interesting gambrel roof, made of clay tiles, called thigh tiles, because the clay was shaped over workers' thighs.

What I didn't get a picture of were Charleston women wearing their big, glorious hats! Wish I had had the nerve to ask for a photo, but it was obvious that this was common attire for them and not some kind of costume. They looked marvelous!