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WHAT'S GOING ON IN
CHARLESTON...
One of Charleston’s most eagerly anticipated attractions annually is the Preservation Society’s Fall Tour of Homes and Gardens, now in its 33rd year. Featuring some of America’s most architecturally-significant buildings and a host of exquisite gardens in various historic neighborhoods, the self-paced walking tours are a delightful way to enjoy parts of the city rarely seen by the public. The tours will be from Thursday, September 24th to Sunday, October 25th, and are held on Thursday and Friday evenings from 7-10 pm, and on weekend afternoons from 2-5 pm. For ticket information, call 843-722-4630 or go online at
www.preservationsociety.org.
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A flavor of African and Caribbean culture is on tap during the annual Moja Arts Festival, September 24th – October 4th. This traditional celebration includes a reggae block dance, music with African and Caribbean drummers, poetry and storytelling in the authentic Gullah dialect, sweetgrass basket weaving, as well as a variety of theatrical performances, crafts, and ethnic food. For more information, call 800-745-3000, or go online at
www.mojafestival.com.
Autumn fun is never finer for families in Carolina than outdoors among ancient oaks and flourishing fields. Historic Boone Hall Plantation carries on years of Fall festival tradition with its new Scarecrow Festival, September 27th – November 1st. Among the featured attractions at Boone Hall this year will be a giant 3,000 square foot corn maze, hay rides, a pumpkin shoot, barnyard animals for petting, a pumpkin checkerboard, a water duck race, and plenty of delicious food, with general admission only $5 per person. For information, call 843-884-4371 or go online at
www.boonehallplantation.com
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CHARLESTON
OUTDOORS - Landscaping
Most visitors to Charleston are intrigued by its colorful variety of flowers, trees and shrubs, which grace parks, gardens, window boxes, and sidewalks throughout the city. Some of the most prominent varieties are, like many local citizens, non-indigenous transplants that arrived here and thrived in the subtropical climate. Many historic streets are adorned with crepe-myrtle and loquat trees, which were introduced to Charleston along with the camellia and azalea by the famed French botanist Andre Michaux
in the late 18th century. Another favored border plant, the
oleander, is of Mediterranean origin, but has found solid root
in Charleston. Traditional coastal species dominate
streetscapes, however, with the official state tree Palmetto and
the towering Live Oaks, each with a
distinctive feature. The Palmetto is characterized by the
crisscrossing “boots” on its trunk, which create a protective
cover for the tree’s core as it grows. Some Palmettos are
stripped of their boots once the tree has reached maturity,
creating a tall, slender look. The Live Oak is known as much for
its piggyback partner, Spanish Moss, which is not a parasite,
but an epiphyte, which simply uses the tree limbs as a platform
from which it absorbs nutrients from the air.
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CHARLESTON EXPLORER -
Middleton Place
The blessing of the hounds on the Sunday following Thanksgiving at Middleton Place Plantation kicks off the annual fox hunting season, and is a reminder that independence from England did not mean the end of English traditions in Charleston. The Middleton Place Hounds was organized in 1977 for the love of a sport that features horseback riding over jumps and through forests and fields in pursuit of tracking fox hounds. Foxes are not the real quarry, of course, as the hounds follow a scent dragged through the woods prior to the hunt. Riders are dressed in traditional hunt garb with jackets, ties and colors designating rank in the chase, which can be very entertaining in 7,000 wooded acres in rural Dorchester County. Visitors are welcome, and should contact MPH at 843-851-6212, or by e-mail at malloryn@norvellgroup.com
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CHARLESTON ARCHITECTURE -
Patrick O'Donnell House
Among the most eye-catching buildings in historic Charleston is the Patrick O’Donnell House at
21 King Street, where the incomparable beauty of the construction belies the legend of heartbreak it caused. O’Donnell was a wealthy Charleston merchant who decided to build an elaborate Italianate design for his prospective bride-to-be in 1856. The massive three- story house would initiate the “side hall” concept to Charleston, in which the traditional single-house design was altered to incorporate a frontal entrance into a hall stairway. This eliminated entrance via the piazza and a dividing central hallway, allowing the great rooms on the first floor to open into one another with wide archways - ideal for great balls and parties. O’Donnell’s exterior details were grandest of all, with vermiculated quoins, fluted window surrounds, rusticated stucco, and both dentils and modillions on the cornices. Sadly, O’Donnell’s obsession with structural grandeur was too much for his fiancé, who broke off the engagement before completion of the house, which was thereafter often called “O’Donnell’s Folly”.
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Real Estate Update - August 2009
CHARLESTON, SC—(August 11, 2009) Home sales in the Charleston area totaled 796 in July, the highest monthly
total this year and an increase of more than 4% compared with last year’s July
sales.
The last time the area saw a year-over-year sales increase was in May 2006,
according to the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors.
The group reported on Monday that the median residential sales price in July
was $181,889, a number that did not set records for the year. Median sale prices
were higher every month this year, except in January and April.
The inventory of homes listed for sale with the Charleston Trident Multiple
Listing Service now totals 10,852, down from 11,173 last month.
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