DOIN’ THE CHARLESTON

Charleston, like Savannah, is loaded with history, charm, and houses.  On the whole, I preferred Savannah for its squares, while Loni leaned towards Charleston for the nifty houses.  Charleston features a housing style that is multi-story, with a false front door that opens onto a breezeway, over which are porches that run the length of the house.  This one has part of

upper breezeway closed in, but most have full porches.  This was for increased ventilation and outdoor entertaining in pre-air conditioning days.  Most all of these are 19th century houses, with some going back to the 18th.  The true swells lived in mansions along the quay fronting the bay, looking out to Fort Sumter.

 

A typical street in the old part of town:

Charleston reeks with history.

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church was begun in 1752, and still features the original box pews and pulpit.  In 1791, Washington made a tour of the South and worshipped here in one of these pews.

We of course had to drop by and tour the namesake:

I have to say, this was a mixed bag.  The house has been restored to magnificent condition, inside and out,

but the interior furnishings are, to be charitable, expensive clutter.  They are not original, but are a mixed bag of items that the current owner, a (extremely) wealthy attorney from Atlanta has picked up from seemingly everywhere.  Literally every surface is packed with knicknacks and the rooms are so crowded it would be hard to maneuver through them.  We contented ourselves with the exquisite woodwork and original chandeliers, but someone needs to edit the decor.  The docent who gave us the tour (with irritating dramatic emphasis) assured us that major museums, like the Getty, were anxious to get their hands on some of the works.  Please!  Take a bunch.

The back yard is a very nice formal garden with fountains and walks.  Perhaps the biggest disappointment (besides the $15-a-head entrance fee)was finding out that the mansion had nothing to do with old John C.  He was dead at least 25 years before it was built in 1876.  It was built by the wealthiest (and, apparently, the most despised) merchant in Charleston to show off his affluence.  John C’s grandson, Patrick, showed the right stuff by marrying the merchant’s only daughter, and they inherited the place.  So, the Calhoun mansion has a little less historical luster than I had thought.  We did finally catch up with the old boy, though.

An even bigger letdown was Fort Sumter.  Hey, you gotta go there to see where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, right?  Well . . . I guess that depends on just how keen a Civil War buff you are.  I’m not.  The fort lies way out in the bay,

and you reach it by ferry.  The fort is free, the ferry is not, but it’s a nice ride out and back with good views of the city.  The disappointment is that the fort today, as restored, bears little or no resemblance to the multi-story structure that was there at the first shot.  The fort was completed in 1860 after 30 years (!) of construction.  The Union held it for only two days after the first bombardment, and was occupied thereafter until the end of the war by the confederacy.  However, Union guns, including rifled cannon, virtually destroyed the entire place.  It was rebuilt, but only in the form that we see today.  Frankly, there’s not a whole lot to see, other than this exciting shell round still stuck in a wall after 150 years.

We went from one less than compelling attraction to another.  The Charleston Aquarium, located next to the ferry dock, was a “gem” attraction, according to AAA.  NOT.  It was just “ok,” as aquariums go, but nowhere near the league of Monterrey or the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  Heck, even Long Beach’s is better.  The only thing of real interest was the albino alligator, a rare beast indeed.

Charleston does have a nifty suspension bridge which was cool to ride over on our way out of town.