Our day was spent exploring Charleston, a town of many nicknames: The Holy City, Chucktown, and Silicon Harbor. The Holy City comes from its historic churches and religious tolerance, while Chucktown is a nod to its original name, Charles Town. New to the list is Silicon Harbor which refers to its growing technology industry. I just call it AWESOME.

Founded as Charles Town by English colonists in 1670, Charleston moved to its current location in 1680. It grew into a major port city and commercial hub, particularly for rice and indigo, becoming the fourth-largest city in North America by the late 17th century. The city played a significant role in the American Revolution and the Atlantic slave trade, and as previously mentioned, the first shots of the Civil War were fired at nearby Fort Sumter.
How amazing... 355 years of history!
Since we only had one day in town, we made the most of it, strolling its streets and absorbing as much as we possibly could.
We began our day at the Charleston City Market, recognized as one of the oldest in the country.
In 1788, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney ceded the land to the City of Charleston for the express use as a public market, and he stipulated that the land must remain in use as a market for perpetuity. To fulfill this requirement, the low buildings—sheds—that stretch from Market Hall to the waterfront were built between 1804 and the 1830s. These sheds originally housed meat, vegetable, and fish vendors. Over the years, the sheds have survived many disasters, including fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, and bombardment.
In 1841, the current Market Hall was erected. Architect Edward Brickwell White was paid $300 to create the building’s blueprints, which paid homage to the Temple of the Wingless Victory in Athens. The resulting handsome structure was originally used by the Market Commissioners for meetings and social functions, while the space beneath the hall housed vendors.

An explore of at least one cemetery is a must. We chose the one at the Unitarian Church. Founded in 1787, it is one of the oldest Unitarian Churches in the U.S. and the oldest one in the South.
I loved the poem that greeted us, "Through hand-wrought gates, alluring paths lead on to pleasant places, where ghosts of long forgotten things have left elusive traces."


The oldest gravestone dates to 1777. Such history.


One of our activities, while it town, was a scavenger hunt of sorts to discover as many different gates as possible. The history of gates here, is a story of both historical necessity and artistic craftsmanship, beginning with early colonial defense and evolving into decorative ironwork symbolizing status and artistry.


I wish this was a more detailed photo of 19th-century ironsmith Christopher Werner's Sword Gate. Interestingly, it protests a 200-year-old home once owned by Abraham Lincoln's granddaughter. Oh man, the history!

Most of the gates we admired were created by the 20th-century master blacksmith Philip Simmons, who created thousands of decorative gates and became known as the "Keeper of the Gate".  I have a blog post of our fortunate visit to Mr. Simmons' home here.
A must for me was a visit to the Post Office. The four corners at the intersection of Meeting and Broad Streets in downtown were set aside for public use in the city’s earliest plan, called the Grand Modell. Today the corners remain occupied by four buildings that represent four branches of law – the County Courthouse, City Hall, St. Michaels, and the United States Post Office and Federal Courthouse. Originally called Civic Square, the intersection is commonly referred to as the Four Corners of Law, a name ascribed to Robert Ripley of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. The Post Office – representing federal law – has been standing here since 1896.
I wanted to visit the Postal Museum, housed within. It is a small but interesting space that focuses on the history of the postal service in Charleston. Old stamps, post office memorabilia, and newspaper clippings tell of the post office's role in many of the city's historical moment.
So me!
After walking miles, a lunch respite was found at Poogan's Smokehouse.
Steve's sustenance was derived from the Four Porksman which consisted of pulled pork, smoked sausage, bacon, a smokehouse rib, cheddar cheese fondue, and barbecue sauce. Hmmm.
I love this building. The Charleston Library Society was founded in 1748 by 19 young men who wanted to access scientific and philosophical materials, making it the third-oldest private library in the United States. Over its history, it has grown significantly, expanded its collections, and played a key role in establishing other cultural institutions, including the College of Charleston and the Charleston Museum. The society eventually moved here, to its permanent location, in 1914.  Steve and I have been fortunate to attend events here in past visits.
The stories here are found in the most unusual places. This nondescript building is the first central station for incandescent electric lighting in South Carolina was established by the United States Electric Illuminating Company of Charleston in October 1882. The station was one of the first of its kind in the nation, starting up just a month after Thomas Edison's Pearl Street Station in New York City. opened.
Coffee was found at this adorable Charleston single house. The distinctive, narrow, multi-story house style is primarily known for its side-facing entrance and covered piazzas or porches.

Any which way you look, there is something interesting to see in Charleston!




We also sought out special door knockers. These works of art reflect a blend of historical, symbolic, and practical purposes, from ancient origins to local symbolism and are still used today as a stylish alternative to modern buzzers. They are often ornate, with popular designs including lion heads, the Hand of Fatima, and sea creatures, but also include specific Charleston motifs like the rice pattern, which symbolizes the city's agricultural history.



These cuties were a surprise to discover. Local legend says a pair of guinea fowl — known by locals as Ginny and Gus — showed up in South of Broad in the 2000s and the family of birds has grown since. There’s a theory that the two lovebirds were dropped off in the upscale neighborhood as a prank. No matter how they got here, one thing’s for sure, these critters are a beloved part of the neighborhood today.
This unassuming building was built in 1856 and had many purposes. I found its 1919 tenant to be very interesting. Susan Pringle Frost, an ardent suffragist and business woman, opened her real estate office in this building then, making her the first woman to occupy an office on Broad Street. Frost spearheaded the local historic preservation movement as a founding member of the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings, the oldest grassroots preservation  organization in the nation, now the Preservation Society of Charleston. In keeping with the legacy of Susan Pringle Frost, the property was restored in 1999 for use as a real estate office. Cool right.
The Fort Sumter House, originally the Fort Sumter Hotel, is a historic building at 1 King Street in Charleston, South Carolina, built in 1923 as the city's first luxury hotel. It hosted notable guests, including John F. Kennedy (he stayed there in 1942 with a woman the FBI suspected was a Nazi spy, which led to him being reassigned to the Pacific) and Tennessee Williams (he wrote scenes for A Streetcar Named Desire on hotel stationery in 1947), and briefly served as the 6th Naval District headquarters during WWII. In 1974, the hotel was converted into 67 condominiums, which it remains today.

We have certainly left a great deal yet to be discovered here in Charleston!

 "The historic preservation work and interpretation of history of this essential American experience focuses on major contributions of the Middleton family as well as the enslaved Africans and African Americans who lived and worked here. The stories are a microcosm of United States history. From the early Colonial period through the Revolution, the early Republic, the Civil War era and beyond, they made a mark on the land, the colony, state, and nation."

"Through meticulous research of history, architecture, and horticulture and continuous digging into agriculture and archeology, art, artifacts, and journals, we keep alive the spirits, lessons, and stories of Middleton Place. American stories. Black stories. White stories. Essential, life‑changing human stories."

With little ones in tow, we spent most of our time here exploring the landscape.



An interesting, and beautiful, side note is the fact that Arthur's son introduced the first camellias to America through a friendship with a French botanist.



Constructed in 1850, the Mill House stands as an important part of the agricultural history at Middleton Place. The mill, used to process rice, a major part of the plantation's economy, was fed by the pond which was dug and created from the damming of a creek winding off the Ashley River.
Rice was the main driver of the economy here and across the South Carolina Lowcountry. It was the primary export crop, leading to immense wealth for planters. The labor-intensive process of rice cultivation relied heavily on the skills and resilience of enslaved Africans and African Americans. They performed the difficult tasks of planting, weeding, and harvesting, and their forced labor was the foundation of this wealth.

To learn more about life of the enslaved, we visited Eliza’s House. This Reconstruction-era African American freedman’s dwelling contains a permanent exhibit on slavery entitled Beyond the Fields. Based on extensive research over the course of a decade, the exhibit documents the story of slavery, in South Carolina and at Middleton Place. The focal point of the exhibit is a panel with the names of over 2800 African and African American men, women and children enslaved by the Middletons.



We spent a great deal of time exploring the Stableyards where we were able to get a glimpse of 18th and 19th century working plantation life. Here skilled enslaved artisans made tools, pottery, clothing and tended an array of livestock.




A highlight for me and the girls was a guided walk titled Heritage Breeds With A History.
The heritage breed animals are indicative of those found on a plantation like Middleton Place at various points in its history over the 18th and 19th centuries. The animals today are known to have been on the plantation just prior to the Civil War thanks to surviving records from the 1850 and 1860 censuses, and from various letters, inventories, and receipts found in the Middleton Place archives.








Spending the day in history with special people makes it unforgettable.