We saw so much today, I would just confuse you all trying to get it all in! We went to Historic Charleston and I’ll try to keep the overview brief. Charleston’s historic district has very narrow streets and the day before we had ran into some people that had just come through and they suggested parking at the Visitor’s Center and just walking everywhere. That’s what we did and it worked great. You wouldn’t really see much driving because of the traffic and peds.
The first estate we went to was owned by the Historic Charleston Foundation and they are into preservation, not restoration. The Aiken-Rhett house had been virtually unaltered since 1858 and it still had the stables, kitchen house and outbuildings. Most all the others in the area have all been torn down or converted into other uses over the years. Pictures were not allowed inside and the outside was all draped in scaffolding and sheeting so no pictures at all. Preservation means suspended in time, no painting or fixing up of anything is done. They do what is needed to maintain the integrity of the structure, but the paint and what may be left of wallpaper and carvings are just as they’ve been for decades and sometimes centuries!
It had been recommended by the people I had mentioned previously that we could see the best of the area by taking a carriage ride. We did that next and I took a lot of pictures! So many gorgeous homes, many restored and in stages of restoration. Several of the mansions gave tours and we did tour the Calhoun Mansion which was 24,000 square feet and is lived in by its current owner. The Calhoun is the largest and has quite a colorful history. It was facing the wrecking ball and is now completely restored and is still a single family residence. 
Some developer wanted to turn it into condos…crazy! I’ll put pictures of its outside and gardens in another post. No pictures were allowed inside.
We timed our lunch just right because after we came out of the restaurant, it was just finishing a very heavy downpour! We checked out a few shops and stopped for peach cobbler on the way back uptown to our truck…didn’t want to run out of steam of course!
On the way home we stopped at Costco and restocked our freezer and then did laundry after we got home. Just wanted to get everything done. I am not going to try to identify all these pictures, this program doesn’t give me a lot of control dropping the pictures exactly where I want them and trying to label them will take too much time, especially if I want you to see them now versus a week from now! By then I would be buried under! We really enjoyed our
tour of Charleston.
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