Eclipse Trip -- Historic Charleston

When we first began exploring what to do while visiting Charleston, there were two things I wanted to do for sure:  (1) visit Fort Sumter and  (2) walk through some of the historic parts of the city.  Fort Sumter requires a boat trip of four miles out into the harbor.  After returning to the room Saturday night we tried to make reservations for one of the Fort Sumter boat tours on Sunday but discovered they were sold out (probably due to all those eclipse watchers in town!).  However, Sunday morning seemed like the ideal time to walk around old Charleston.  As it turned out it was, except for the killer heat and humidity.  More on that later.

Overview map of Charleston (on the peninsula) with gps track of our walk through historic Charleston.  The Ashley River is to the west and the Cooper River is to the east.  Fort Sumter is on the island in the far southeast corner of the map.

Historic Charleston.  The historic part of Charleston is the southern end of the peninsula.  It really is a very long history.  The city's settlement started in the late 1600's (Wikipedia says 1670, but a different website points out that the 1670 settlement was on the west side of the Ashley River).  A fortress city on the east side of the peninsula along the Cooper River was begun in the last few years of the 17th century.  The walls of brick and earth encompassed sixty-two acres of high ground on an otherwise marsh-riddled peninsula.  It was the only walled city built by the English in North America, protecting the English inhabitants from possible naval attack by French and Spanish forces and any land assault by hostile Native Americans. 

Based on early maps and recent archaeological digs, the location of the original walls are well established.  In our wanderings we even saw a tiny part of the original wall with an appropriate historical plaque.  Interestingly, the land mass of the peninsula has expanded significantly over the years (see interactive map here).  Even though the portion we saw was no longer on the river, it may well have been in 1670. 

History seems to be everywhere in Charleston. It is truly impressive how the citizens have gone out of their way to preserve that history.  Indeed, much of the city looks like a period movie set.  I can't possibly do this history justice here...especially since I got so wrapped up in the moment that I forgot to take pictures...but I will list a few of the interesting things that we discovered.  

We were not sure where we would be able to park, but came into town from our hotel on the west side of the Ashley River and drove on the road along the seawall around the southern end of the peninsula.  There were lots of people jogging or walking, but there was still a fair amount of parking on the street.  We snagged a spot and began our exploration on foot.

GPS track of our exploration on foot of historic Charleston

White Point Garden. We started by checking out White Point Garden, a public park at the southern tip of the peninsula.  It is a beautiful area with huge live oak trees, lots of monuments, and beautiful views of the harbor.  Surprisingly to us, there were many signs indicating that the trees were an active bird rookery although we did not see that many birds.

A Revolutionary War monument at White Point Gardens with some of the many live oaks in the background

The park has a long history, including the location of Confederate artillery to defend the city during the Civil War.  We even saw one plaque describing the execution of pirates in the park in 1718 and 1719.

Historic homes.  Leaving the park, we walked north along the top of the seawall or Battery.  The major point of interest in the area is the collection of historic antebellum homes.  

The tip of the peninsula and White Point Garden as seen from the ferry to Fort Sumter.  Note the huge homes.  The red brick building with the white pillars (right of the smaller clump of green) is the Robert William Roper House.

All of the homes in this immediate area are old and most are huge.  A good example of that was the Robert William Roper House, 9 East Battery Street.  It was originally overlooking the park, but there are now two houses between the park and the Roper House.  Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973, the house is known as one of Charleston’s most beautiful Greek Revival houses.  Robert William Roper, a prominent cotton planter, built the house in 1838. He intended for his showcase home to be the first residence seen by visitors approaching Charleston from the sea and apparently it could be seen by approaching ships from miles away.  Interestingly, despite significant renovations in the 1980's,  there is still a 500 pound piece of cannon lodged in the attic from when the Confederates blew up a gun at the intersection of E. Battery and S. Battery in 1865!

Edmondston-Alston House as seen from the ferry to Fort Sumter

A little further up Battery Street at 21 East Battery is the Edmondston-Alston House.  It was built in the 1820's and is typical of the so-called Charleston single house style where the house is long and narrow but turned sideways on the lot such that only one room on each floor faces the street.  The porches on each floor run along the long side of the house to take best advantage of the prevailing wind.

Northwest corner of Tradd and East Bay, the southern end of Rainbow Row.  Also notice the earthquake bolts on both the front and side of the building.

Even further up the same street, which has now become East Bay Street, is a row of thirteen houses known as Rainbow Row.  It is the longest cluster of Georgian row houses in the U.S.  The name comes from their pastel colors.  I did not realize until after we returned home that this was Rainbow Row or I would have continued on in front of them and taken more pictures.  We read several places that the colors were to aid drunken sailors in finding their correct boarding house or to aid illiterate slaves in finding the correct address.  Although nice stories, those are probably just myths.

The buildings of Rainbow Row were built by merchants with stores on the ground floor and living quarters above.  Most of the original structures were built around 1770 and all were directly on the riverfront of the Cooper River before land to the east was filled in.  However, many of the original buildings were destroyed by fire in 1778.  Most of the current buildings were rebuilt after the 1778 fire.

Looking west on Tradd Street

Although the side streets were quite narrow, they were very interesting. We meandered through some of the residential areas, including some of the streets that are labelled alleys, and finally came out among several churches.

We did not actually walk very far, but it was so hot and humid we decided to circle back to the car.  We went via Waterfront Park, which is home to Charleston's iconic pineapple fountain.  There were also a series of very interesting 3-D maps of Charleston through the years, but I did not take a picture and have not been able to locate any online.

Bombardment of Charleston.  During our entire walk we were south of Calhoun Street.  According to this site, this entire area was within range of Union guns and took a heavy beating from a Union bombardment lasting 545 days from 1863 to 1865.   It was the longest bombardment in military history until the German siege of Leningrad in World War II.  The majority of the population moved north of Calhoun Street to get out of range to avoid injury.  This bombardment, on top of a major fire in 1861, must have resulted in significant damage to this part of town during this period of time. 

Earthquake of 1886.  One of the most interesting things I discovered, at least in part while preparing  to do an earthcache, was the history of the great Charleston Earthquake of 1886.   At an estimated 6.9-7.3 on the Richter Scale, it was the second most powerful earthquake ever on the east coast, behind only the series of three earthquakes in New Madrid, Missouri, in 1811-1812.

For all of you on the west coast 7.3 doesn't seem like much, but actually it was.  Within the city of Charleston almost every building sustained damage and most had to be torn down and rebuilt.  Most surprising to me was how far away it was felt, as far away as Boston to the north, Chicago and Milwaukee to the northwest, New Orleans to the west, Cuba to the south, and Bermuda to the east.  Even at these far flung places, the quake was significant.  According to this site, a telephone operator in Brooklyn, New York, thought he was having a heart attack when all the plugs on his switchboard popped out of their sockets.  At a minstrel show in Terre Haute, Indiana, the galleries swayed, and threw one man out of the balcony who saved himself by clinging to a railing.  The audience in the opera house in Dubuque, Iowa, stampeded, thinking the building was about to fall.

This seemed almost unbelievable to me, so I had to do some more research.  Yes, it is true that east coast earthquakes are fundamentally different from west coast earthquakes.  Most notably, the older, cooler, more solid crust of the east coast transmits motion over much longer distances than an equal size earthquake on the west coast.

What does all of this have to do with wandering through historic Charleston?   Following the earthquake, metal rods were inserted into floor joists of damaged homes.  The exposed bolts were tightened, straightening the house and giving it stability.  These earthquake bolts are still visible on many buildings.  Some are plain, while others are disguised as different ornate shapes.

Close up of the photo above of a home on Tradd Street with more ornate earthquake bolts

 

House with earthquake bolts

Whether caused by war, fires, or earthquakes (not to mention hurricanes), there has been the need for multiple reconstructions of the buildings over time.  However, it was interesting to see a lot of renovation currently in progress.  Given the historical designation for essentially the entire city, I cannot imagine the paperwork involved.

Protestors and counter-protestors at the Confederate Defender of Charleston Memorial

We finally made our way back to White Point Garden.  By this time a small group of protestors and another group of counter-protestors had congregated at the Memorial to the Confederate Defenders of Charleston in the corner of the park.  Although this memorial has been the frequent target of vandalism in recent years, it did not look like there would be trouble today.  However, it still seemed like a good time to move on and find some air conditioning since we were really feeling the high humidity.

Although the heat and humidity had cut short our exploration such that we did not see much of the historical public buildings, we still learned a great deal and got some feel for this beautiful city.  I would be most interested in returning, although some time when it is cooler!