Start at the Charleston Visitor Center (375 Meeting St. +1 843 853 8000), which has maps, brochures, a multimedia show, and information on carriage and guided walking tours. Most of the historic sites lie several blocks south—you can either walk, take DASH (Downtown Area Shuttle), or drive and park in a lot.
The Charleston Museum (360 Meeting St. +1 843 722 2996. Adm. fee) displays Low Country memorabilia that includes dueling pistols, a signed dueling contract, copper slave badges, and rice-farming exhibits.
The Joseph Manigault House (350 Meeting St. +1 843 723 2926. Adm. fee), a federal mansion built in 1803 for a rice planter, is furnished with many Charleston-made pieces.
The monumental Greek Revival Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue (90 Hasell St. +1 843 723 1090), constructed in 1840, replaced an 18th-century structure that served one of the country’s largest Jewish communities.
The busy open-air City Market (Market St. from Meeting St. to E. Bay St.) dates back to the late 18th century, though the present buildings were constructed in the 1840s. At the head of the row of stalls, Market Hall housed the Confederate Museum until damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The museum’s collection (currently at 34 Pitt St. Sat.-Sun.; Adm. fee) contains the first and last flags to wave over Fort Sumter, hair of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, and other Confederate relics.
The oldest public building in town, the 1713 Old Powder Magazine (79 Cumberland St. +1 843 722 3767) squats at the northwest corner of the original walled city and was used as an ammunition depot during the Revolution.
The grand old Dock Street Theatre (135 Church St. +1 843 720 3968. Mon.-Fri.) boasts ornate ironwork and a plush interior. The original theater, opened in 1736, probably burned in the fire of 1740, along with 300 other buildings.
The Gothic Revival Huguenot Church (136 Church St. +1 843 722 4385. Feb.-Dec. Mon.-Fri.), built in 1845, is one of the last surviving French Protestant churches in the country.
A small plaque at 6 Chalmers Street serves as a reminder of the once active Old Slave Mart, the main site of the city’s antebellum slave trade.
At the east end of Broad Street stands the Palladian Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon (122 E. Bay St. +1 843 727 2165. Adm. fee), built by the British in 1771 as an exchange and customshouse. One of the most significant and popular historical sites in the city, the building was used to imprison pirates and patriots, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence. The two upper floors contain colonial artifacts; the dank dungeon, dating from the early 18th century, exhibits chained pirate mannequins and a portion of the city’s original brick seawall, discovered in a 1965 excavation. Just to the south, the pastel-colored attached houses called Rainbow Row (79-107 E. Bay St.) date from the mid-18th century and typify the style favored by merchants who lived above their ground-floor shops.
For an artist’s-eye view of Charleston, stop by the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Studio-Museum (38 Tradd St. +1 843 722 4246. Mon.-Sat.), which exhibits street scenes and portraits dating from the early 20th century. Along Tradd Street are examples of Charleston’s ubiquitous single and double houses—dwellings one or two rooms wide, many with front doors that open onto a long breeze-catching porch, or piazza. Also note the earthquake bolts, with decorative ends, that date from just after the 1886 earthquake, when residents repaired structural damage by inserting long iron rods through their walls and tightening them with turnbuckles.
A triumph of federal architecture, the 1808 Nathaniel Russell House (51 Meeting St. +1 843 724 8481. Adm. fee) was built by a Rhode Island merchant for his family and slaves. A three-story, freestanding spiral staircase is the highlight of the house, which also features period antiques and artwork and a formal garden with year-round flowers.
The 1876 Calhoun Mansion (16 Meeting St. +1 843 722 8205. Thurs.-Sun. Adm. fee), with its massive walnut front doors, gilt mirrors, and 45-foot-high [13.7-meter-high] ballroom ceiling, offers a look at the high Victorian style.
The Greek Revival Edmondston-Alston House (21 E. Battery St. +1 843 722 7171. Adm. fee) ranks among the grandest of the many magnificent homes shouldering the tip of the Charleston peninsula. Still owned and partly occupied by descendants of the Alston rice-planting dynasty, this 1825 house harbors rooms of priceless family furniture, books, and silver. The second-floor piazza claims a breathtaking view of Charleston Harbor; from here, family members watched the bombardment of Fort Sumter.
This partial listing is an excerpt from the National Geographic Guide to America's Historic Places.
