Shirley, the tour guide, was explaining the room and some of its furnishings. The families that had lived there before the Civil War made a fortune from rice plantations, worked with slave labor, and the glass lamp shades of the gas light fixture had rice stalks embedded as a design. That room was used for business. Well worn Oriental rugs were placed here and there over the original wide floor boards. A huge double pocket door was rolled open making the dining room and business room one large space. Antiques owned by the Alstons and related families furnished the house. Most of the wealthy families in Charleston were interrelated and many valuable antiques in the house had survived from one generation to the next. A genealogical chart in one room explained how the ownership of the house passed from the origianl owner to the most recent owner and included many of the most prominent citizens of Charleston.

Upstairs we looked out of the library window facing the battery and Charleston Harbor and we could see Sulllivans Island, Fort Sumter and James Island. General Beauregard watched the same view from the same window while his plan for the bombardment of Fort Sumter was being carried out at the beginning of the Civil War. Next was the music room where a beautiful harp was on display. We walked out onto the second floor piazza and again saw a magnificent view of the bay. Shirley said that waves forty to fifty feet high have come crashing over the thick walls of the battery during hurricanes causing severe damage to the house.

The house was built in 1825 by shipping merchant Charles Edmonton. Finances forced him to sell his beloved house to rice-planter Charles Alston. The house still remains in the Alston family. Today, the house is run by the same organization that runs the Middleton Plantation. The house has been painstaking decorated to look is if you were visiting the original owners themselves.

Your tour starts in the main dining room. This room is decorated with beautiful antiques and family heirlooms. You also get to visit the dining room, kitchen, and several rooms upstairs’ rooms. The third floor is not open to the public. In the dining room you can't help but marvel at the very huge dining room table. You could serve a small country on this table! The rooms are just gorgeous, and anyone who loves antiques will fall in love with this place, though I did see quite a few antiques very similar to my own collection. They had a Duncan-Phife that looked just like mine, which makes me very thankful that my relatives took such care of their furniture. You also see many family heirlooms, such as photos and journals.

It is interesting to note that General Robert E. Lee stayed here when a fire destroyed the hotel he was staying in. And, in 1860, General Beaureguard and the Alston family got a front-row view from the second-story piazzas as Ft. Sumter was bombarded. The tour only last about 45 minutes, and tours run until 4:30pm. If you get a chance afterwards, you really should check out the lovely Middleton Plantation. A large portion of the movie The Patriot, starring super-hunky Mel Gibson, was filmed here. You can check out the website at www.middletonplace.com for information on Middleton Place and click on the Edmondson-Alston house for further information on this lovely house.

The house was built in 1825 and has managed to make it through hurricanes (there are some crazy pictures of the damage done my hurricane Hugo in the house), earthquakes, bombardments, and fires.

It's most notable feature is the huge piazza. On nice days, the view from the second floor piazza is one of the most beautiful sights in Charleston. There is a lovely breeze from the harbor, and you can clearly see Fort Sumter. It is very easy to imagine yourself sitting on the piazza in 1835, drinking mint juleps and gossiping with friends.

The home is full of various antiques of the families, but the most impressive room is the library. It has hundreds of antique books and some really interesting furniture. For some reason, this house, more than any other in Charleston, really gives the visitor a good feel for life in the Ante Bellum South. I'm not sure if it is the furnishing of the house or the accessibility of the rooms, but it feels like you are stepping back in time.

To me, the most interesting thing about the house is that it is still a private residence. The family lives in the top floor, and the first and second floors are open to tours. I can only guess that they are very generous people for opening their home like that, and I am most appreciative.

The house is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4:30pm and Sunday and Monday 1:30pm to 4:30pm.

Family portraits, painted in Paris, English Regency furnishings, and an elaborate 1811 harp made in London still occupy the drawing room. Brass, bronze and ormolu chandeliers, still perfectly intact dazzle visitors with their intricacy and beauty. But the piece de resistance is the original copy of the signed Articles of Succession (the printer made 200, one for each signer, of which Alston was one). We are told that Alston and General P.G.T. Beauregard watched from the piazza of this home to see the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

Touring the house brings up details of the challenges of life to those who lived before the establishment of such modern-day necessities as supermarkets, air conditioning, central heating and sewage treatment plants. Even the rich entertained visitors only on the second floors, since livestock and the ensuing odors and waste products were all too evident on the ground floor. Even with a staff of 23, including 8 "body servants" as this family enjoyed, only one meal per day could be assembled and served properly considering the enormous amount of effort that it required.

If walls could talk this house would tell great tales. Regardless of its silence, the remnants and relics of its history still speak of a truly memorable history of great families and grand days in a budding republic interrupted, but not discouraged, by periods of utter devastation. If the wars and economic blows were not enough, nature also has taken many a shot. Even rather recently hurricane Hugo dealt the home a tremendous disservice when it battered Charleston and left two feet of swamp mud in the home’s first floor. You would never suspect any of this if it weren’t for the pictures in the historic gallery room that offered proof.

Amidst all this bustle, an heir to the Alston family still resides in the third floor of the home, which explains the volunteer ladies’ call for decorum and hushed tones during the tour. Considering that, I would like to offer thanks to the Middleton Place Foundation, www.middletonplace.org, its supporters and volunteers and the extreme generosity of the current resident, who continue to love and cherish this piece of American history while welcoming the throngs of visitors who traipse through it daily filled with wonderment and awe in having a glimpse into its historic past.