Fall Tours of Homes and Gardens – One of Charleston’s most popular events kicks off its 34th spectacular year, as the Preservation Society of Charleston presents its annual Fall Tours of Homes and Gardens, from Sept. 23rd through October 24th. This delightful tour includes more than fifty historic residences in picturesque settings throughout the city, featuring exquisite interiors and furnishings dating from the 18th , 19th , and 20th centuries, as well as enchanting gardens in full Fall bloom. At all tour locations, well-informed docents offer captivating information about architecture, flora and historic events.

Wine Tasting - Another pleasurable feature is the tour wine tasting at Circa 1886 restaurant on Oct. 2nd, as patrons can enjoy premiere vintages in this AAA Four-Diamond and Wine Spectator award-winning restaurant, located at the dazzling Wentworth Mansion. Tickets for the wine tasting are $35 per person and $45 per person for individual neighborhood tours. For information, call 843-722-4630, or online at http://www.preservationsociety.org.
 

Charleston Theater - The historic Dock Street Theater opens another season on Sept. 3rd, with Hairspray, the first of a 12-part series of performances by the Charleston Stage resident theater company. This comedic story about a shy girl who finds a new world through dance competitions, runs through September 19th. The ensuing fall performance is Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller, The 39 Steps, with performances from Oct. 29th through Nov. 7.  As intriguing as any performance is the historic Dock Street Theater itself, beautifully recreated in 1937 from drawings of a colonial stage that opened on the site in 1736. For tickets and information, call the Charleston Stage box office at 843-577-7183.

Restaurant Week - Charleston launches its inaugural Restaurant Week, from Sept. 8th through the 19th, featuring dozens of the city’s notable dining establishments. The affair will allow the public to enjoy fine cuisine without breaking the bank, as three-course meals will be available for $30 at most locations. 

Taste of Charleston - Another great flavor returns with the 30th annual Taste of Charleston, Oct. 8th, 9th and 10th. The three-day event begins with the Iron Chef Competition at the Culinary Institute of Charleston’s Palmer Campus on Thursday, featuring dishes by some of Charleston’s nationally-known chefs.

Charleston Art Walk - The Taste of the Arts Gallery Walk takes place Saturday night downtown, featuring a variety of Charleston’s famed neighborhood galleries, where samplings of local restaurants will be served. Gallery Row will be held Saturday evening, October 10, 6 – 8 p.m., at various art galleries in downtown Charleston.

Taste of Charleston Main Event - October 10.  10:30 am- 5 pm.  The big weekend culminates, as always, under the grand oaks of Boone Hall Plantation, where thousands of friends and families will gather for a sensory smorgasbord of grilled, roasted, sautéed, fried and smoked flavors. More than 50 area restaurants and chefs will showcase their cooking talents, along with food and wine pairings, live music, and the hilariously-entertaining waiters’ race. For information and tickets call or go online at www.charlestonrestaurantassociation.com

Check out our Charleston SC Blog and find out what is happening around town.

The prospect of scuba diving off the South Carolina coast may come as a surprise to some, but the Charleston area offers a remarkable underwater experience. Ancient layers of limestone extending offshore create a “live bottom” of rocky ledges that attracts spade fish, grouper, barracuda and amberjacks in depths ranging from 40 to 130 feet. In addition to the natural environmental strata are dozens of artificial reefs created by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to enhance the numbers of fish. In a program begun in 1973, the state has sunk everything from obsolete ships, armored vehicles, concrete bridges and disarmed ballistic missiles to attract marine life that cling to hard surfaces along the bottom. These organisms establish ample feeding grounds for great schools of fins that dazzle divers in seas 9 to 35 miles offshore where the visibility is outstanding. Inshore along fresh water rivers, “black-water diving” is extremely popular as well, as scuba enthusiasts descend into water tinted darkly by tannins from organic matter. The goal in these dusky depths is history, as the bottom of such rivers as the Edisto, Ashley and Cooper flow with colonial pottery, glassware and other relics. The Cooper River Underwater Heritage Trail features two miles of shipwrecks and plantation barges, marked by a series of underwater plaques near famous Mepkin Abbey. Charleston Scuba is a full service, PADI 5-star diving center, featuring diving certification, rentals, as well as inshore and offshore excursions. For information, call 843-763-3483 or on line at info@charlestonscuba.com.

  Charleston Architecture - Although England’s King George III was blamed for creating the American Revolution, Charleston can thank him and his family for years of architectural inspiration. The Georgian architectural style that dominates much of the historic city was named for the four kings named George, whose successive reign from 1714 to 1830 transformed English and American building design. Prior to these kings, Baroque was the most popular building style in England, and in the colonies, a medieval half-timbered fashion was dominant. The four Georges established their mark with a grander scale, opulence and greater attention to symmetry, which influenced Charleston houses with taller facades graced with larger 9-over-9 windows, hipped roofs, porticoes, double chimneys and dentil molding, featuring either brick or wooden walls. A basic of the classic Georgian home in wood is Thomas Elfe house on Queen Street, built in 1760 of beaded cypress weatherboard, while one of the most grandiose examples is the Miles Brewton house on King Street, built of plantation brick five years later. The Georgian concept expanded with each sovereign’s generation, and would eventually feature massive pediments, wrought iron balconies, and rusticated basements. The concept of imposing, statuesque construction would influence the Neo-Classical and Palladian styles that would dominate Charleston’s public buildings in the late 18th century, such as the 1771 Exchange and the 1788 County Courthouse, both facing Broad Street. The last influence of this line of kings came with King George IV, best known for creating Buckingham Palace, whose ornate beauty features such details as parapet balustrades that became popular on buildings like the 1825 Edmonston-Alston house on East Battery.

  Bet You Did Not Know... - Many classic Charleston houses were once home to commercial enterprises that served a downtown area whose residential zoning was not as strict or prevalent as it is today. The attractive 1770’s residence at 58 Meeting Street, for example, was home to a ground-story grocery store for more than a century. Around the corner at 62 Tradd Street, the rear dependency was Marshall’s Bakery for five decades, and at 54 Tradd, the stylish street door once led to a post office in the 18th century. The brick house at 34 Chalmers Street housed a blacksmith shop during the 19th century, and its arched front window was the entrance to an auto repair shop until the 1940’s. Side by side on East Bay Street, the post-Revolutionary structures at 53 and 55 had businesses on the first floor known as “slop shops”, where sailors bought rough garments for work. The antebellum brick building at 19 Elizabeth Street originally had a grocery downstairs and a grist mill in the back yard, and the stuccoed 1850’s structure at 9 Fulton Street was used as a brothel. The single house at 47 Gadsden Street was built shortly after the Civil War, and featured an attachment that housed a saloon during the late 1800’s, and the gable-roofed house at 96 King Street was built before the Revolution with a downstairs watch-maker’s shop. Several substantial early 19th century structures, including the John Cordes Prioleau house at 68 Meeting Street and the famed Sword Gate house at 32 Legare Street, were once home to private academies for the elite families of Charleston. One of the last of the old commercial establishments to convert to today’s array of fashionable residences was the 18th century Dutarque-Guida house along famous Rainbow Row at 105 East Bay, which housed a first-story general store until 1969.

  Charleston Market Report - August 2010

Charleston News Archived

Hyper Local Statistics: Historic Downtown, Mount Pleasant, Sullivan's Island.  Please email me if you would like information on any of the 15 hyper local markets.