THE BATTERY AND RAINBOW ROW IN CHARLESTON

Charleston was one of the places that I couldn't wait to visit.  I have wanted to visit here for years.  I love the old south homes and their charm. I am a die hard Gone With The Wind fan and sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era. I could envision myself as a real southern belle.

I arrived in Charleston on Wednesday and Daughter and her 2 girls came to visit on Thursday.  Daughter loves the old time charm of these homes too. So, we decided to make a trip to the area of downtown Charleston known as The Battery and to visit the Old City Market.

We arrived at the Battery and all I can say is Wow! There are rows and rows and roads and roads of old southern homes with the big porches and the pillars on cobblestone streets. I kept waiting to see ladies walking around with the big hooped dresses and their parasols.  Did I say I LOVE THIS? I could live here.  There are houses that have been totally restored, houses that have had some restoration, and houses that are undergoing restoration at this time.  There were a couple of houses for sale and according to Zillow, for a mere 5.5 million, I could own one of them that had 10,000+ square feet.  Anyone out there want to contribute to fund?  I am not proud.  I will take any handouts if it helps me live in one of these homes.

A lot of these homes had beautiful courtyards around them.

There were parts that reminded me a lot of New Orleans.  They even had an area called the French Quarter.

Don't you love the beautiful flowers?

Look at these porches!
 

There were even horse drawn carriages with guides doing tours of the area. Now wouldn't you expect to see horse drawn carriages around these homes? Daughter and I wanted to knock on their door and ask if we could come inside and see what the inside looked like. Now, if they were really from the south, they would have asked us in and offered us some sweet tea.  Don't you think? :)

Right adjacent to The Battery is an area called Rainbow Row.  It is about 2 blocks of Georgian Row Houses that are painted pink, yellow, blue, green, and purple.  Originally, shop owners had their shops on the ground floor and lived upstairs.  King George had levied taxes on the "footprint" that the shop owners put on the ground.  So, instead of expanding their business/home out, they expanded up.  That kept them from having to pay additional taxes.  That is also why they are called "Georgian" Row Houses - King George.  Because they sat on the waterfront and since the harbor was blockaded during and after the Civil War, the merchants closed their businesses and this area became the slum area of Charleston.  In the 1920s, the city of Charleston was getting ready to bulldoze all of the buildings.  However, Susan Pringle Frost, the founder of the Preservation Society of Charleston, bought six of the buildings.  She painted them yellow, but she lacked the money to do anymore restoration immediately. In 1931, a friend of hers from New York, Dorothy Haskell Porcher Legge purchased a section of these houses and began to renovate them. She chose to paint her houses pink based on a colonial Caribbean color scheme. Since she was known to be wealthy, other owners and future owners followed suit, creating the "rainbow" of pastel colors present today. The coloring of the houses helped keep the houses cool inside as well as give the area its name. By 1945, most of the houses had been restored.

There are 2 great parks in this area. White Point Gardens/Battery Park and Waterfront Park. I got some pictures of White Point Gardens/Battery Park which are below.  I only walked through one little tip of Waterfront Park because I had been walking a lot and it was close to 100 degrees and I was trying to get back to a/c quickly at this point. There is a fountain at Waterfront Park that people can play in.  Believe me, if I could have, I would have been in the fountain!  Both parks are really beautiful.  White Point Gardens/Battery Park had replicas of old cannons that sat in the park to defend the city.  At both parks, you can see Ft. Sumter which is a ferry ride away.  Ft. Sumter is the site of the first shot fired in the Civil War.

This park is right across the street from the ocean and the breeze is wonderful and refreshing on a very hot day! It is extremely shady and has lots of park benches to sit and relax on.

I love these old trees that form canopies over walkways and streets.

Let me mention one more time that I loved this area! I could spend a lot more time just walking and taking pictures.  No wonder this area is one of the top tourist places to visit in Charleston.  If you are ever in Charleston, you have to visit.