Charleston, SC

 

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We took a 1 1/2 hr bus tour of this historic city today.  It was incredibly awesome!  So we took photos of things we wanted to share with you.  This photo is of a style home called Charleston Single.  Notice the fire hydrant and tree with the black door to the right. That is the front side of the house on the street. The black front door actually leads to the side porch. If the front door was closed, the house was closed to visitors because the southern belles were in their petticoats fanning themselves on the porch on hot summer days.  No one walking by dare look at the porches.  When the ladies were properly dressed the door was left open.

This is the Calhoun House.  The largest private residence which we heard was owned by a DC attorney.  The third floor is used by their family.  The first two floors are filled with an amazing collection of antiques for the tourist. Calhoun was VP under Andrew Jackson and supposedly was responsible for the Civil War.  There is a lot more history, but to be honest, we couldn’t remember it all.

 

Notice the gray dots on the front of this house. Charleston is on a fault line along the east coast. In the late 1800’s they had a 7.2 magnitude earthquake.  This concrete house  had walls that were pulling away from the center. So they devised a way to slowly tighten screws to put the walls back in place. The dots are the ends of the screws. Now they are part of the decoration!  The first floor of this building was under water during Hurricane Hugo. 

Bubba, our tour guide, recommended Hymans Seafood Restaurant for lunch.  It was another fantastic experience.  Eli, the great grandson of the original owner, stopped by our table to make sure everything was satisfactory.  All celebrities come here to eat.  Our table had a brass plaque that said, “Timothy Dalton ate at this table.”  The food was to die for.  We ate so much we don’t even want dinner tonight!