HMS Beangle

Walking around Charleston is a lot like walking around Vienna. Because things were meticulously rebuilt or restored to their former image, it’s easy to forget that the city was so damaged near the end of the Civil War. It’s a beautiful city, and the favorite of several people I know. To me, it often felt like a movie set — a bit too clean, a bit too shiny, a touch too perfect.

The South of Broad area, between Broad Street and Battery Park, is full of iconic Charleston single house mansions, surrounded by fenced yards and sandwiched between charming alleys. A Charleston single house sits with its narrowest side facing the street. The street facing door leads to a covered veranda, which runs the entire length of the house. The main door and central staircase are located off the street in the middle of the house, cutting the building into left and right halves. Thus, each floor equals two rooms. See how (above) the blue door’s steps lead to the ground floor veranda? The three windows facing the street are the width of a single room, hence the name. Thus, this house above has six (gigantic) rooms.

If you visit Charleston, we highly recommend taking the Aiken-Rhett self-guided house and grounds tour. The house is preserved, not restored, so it’s roughly in the condition that it was in when it was acquired. It sounds odd, but it really lets you see how the house was used and modified over time. If you’re interested in doing the tour long-distance, you can download the Historic Charleston app and listen to the same audio guide that we were given. There are photos that go along with the audio bits to help you understand. There is also one for the Nathaniel Russell house (below). It’s a more traditional, restored home tour with an emphasis on the grand.

On the Russell House tour, you learn things like: the mahogany doors throughout the house aren’t real mahogany. They’re pine painted to look like mahogany. Why? Because it was more expensive to paint them that way than to actually import and use mahogany wood itself. That’s right, the actual goal wasn’t to have a certain kind of doors but rather to spend a lot of money and to have other people know that you spent a lot of money. Heavy sigh.

There’s also a self-guided walking tour of Charleston on the app, but I found that out after the fact.

If you ever get the chance, visit Charleston when it’s 45° Fahrenheit. You’ll have the city completely to yourself. That’s a 10/10 touristing tip and I’m giving it to you for free.

Tip number two: If you’re driving into and out of the city, park at the Visitor Center parking ramp on the northern end of downtown and leave the city either before 2 PM or after 7 PM if you value your sanity. We learned that the hard way.

It might have been cold, but most of the private gardens were full of winter color. Nowhere have I seen a city do winter gardens as well as Charleston does. With a cup of something warm, I could have wandered them for hours.