IgoUgo

Charleston Journals

Charleston is Charming

Best of IgoUgo

An April 2004 trip to Charleston by Mary Dickinson

Approaching Boone Hall Photo - Boone Hall Plantation, Charleston, South Carolina More Photos
Quote: Plantation life, fine living in Charleston, and the institution of slavery are all part of the history of the area. Those old buildings help us to undestand what the antebellum South was all about.
  • Cheer!
  • Flag
  • Print

Poogan's Porch Best of IgoUgo

Restaurant

Sign along Queen Street Photo - Poogan's Porch, Charleston, South Carolina
Quote:
Street map in hand, we started down Queen Street trying to find our way around Historic Charleston. Some of the old townhouses are now commercial. Poogan's Porch, a restaurant named after a stray dog that wouldn't go away, is one of them. It looked so inviting, we decided to take time for a lunch break. We were cheerfully greeted in the entry hall of this 1880s townhouse and led past the formal dining room in the former front parlor, through the dark but elaborately decorated bar in the center of the house and out to the beautiful sun parlor in the rear of the house. All the tables were set with white cotton table clothes, white napkins, silver ware and sparkling crystal water glasses. Th...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on May 15, 2004

Poogan's Porch
72 Queen Street
Charleston 29401
(843) 577-2337

Approaching Boone Hall Photo - Boone Hall Plantation, Charleston, South Carolina
Quote:
Gone With The Wind, The North and the South, and Queen were all filmed at the same location: Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, SC. Although open for tours, it is still a 738-acre working farm with orchards and crops. Lofty limbs of live oak trees covered with Spanish moss form a canopy over the long driveway approaching the main house as seen in Twelve Oaks in GWTW and Mt Royal in the N&S. The present mansion, built in 1946, is nothing like the one that was there before the Civil War. The former one was not much better than the slave quarters that are still in place next to the driveway. The plantation dates back to 1681. Several tours are offered. We too...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on May 10, 2004

Boone Hall Plantation
Highway 17 North
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina 29465
+1 843 884 4371

Nathaniel Russell House Best of IgoUgo

Attraction | "The Nathaniel Russell House"

The garden at the Nathaniel Russell House Photo - Nathaniel Russell House, Charleston, South Carolina
Quote:
Meeting Street in Historic Charleston is a neighborhood of elegance and opulence but even for that area the Nathaniel Russell House is outstanding. Inside the heavy black iron fence, closing it off from the street, is a beautiful formal garden. In early April, when we were there, the azaleas, roses and many more beautiful flowers were in full bloom. To validate our house tour passports or purchase a tour ticket, we had to walk through the garden to the back of the house to the gift shop. In 1808, when the house was built, it was a separate building with a kitchen on the first floor and slave quarters on the second floor, but has since been joined, by an addition, to the main house. ...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on May 10, 2004

Nathaniel Russell House
51 Meeting St
Charleston, South Carolina 29401
+1 843 723 1623

Aiken-Rhett House Best of IgoUgo

Attraction

The Aiken-Rhett House Photo - Aiken-Rhett House, Charleston, South Carolina
Quote:
James Cameron called his movie on the actual exploration of the Titanic Ghosts of the Abyss. I would call theAiken-Rhett House, in Charleston, SC, Ghosts of the Old South. For the benefit of conservation, the Historic Charleston Foundation, present owners of the house, have left it virtually untouched since 1975 when Mrs Rhett, the last Aiken descendent to live in the house, moved out Double wide, double hung windows in the sitting room pull up and become doors leading to the piazza on the first and second floors. Nothing has been done to improve the house since 1858 so the windows have missing paint. Wallpaper is falling off the walls. It’s a historian's dream but it ...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on May 14, 2004

Aiken-Rhett House
48 Elizabeth St
Charleston, South Carolina 29403
+1 843 723 1159

Lizzy's Sweetgrass Baskets Best of IgoUgo

Attraction | "Sweet Grass Baskets"

Sweet grass basket Photo - Lizzy's Sweetgrass Baskets, Charleston, South Carolina
Quote:
Along the sides of the road on Rt. 17 in Mt. Pleasant SC are odd-looking wooden structures, usually made from 10 to 20 weather beaten boards. They don't seem to have a reason to be there until around 10am when someone arrives and begins to fill all the horizontal boards with a variety of sweet grass baskets. They are the Gullah people. Their ancestors brought the art of basket making from Africa when they were captured and forced into slavery along the rice-producing coast of South Carolina. Sweet grass baskets are collected as works of art. If you stop to look at them, you can watch as a basket is being assembled. Sometimes pine needles are added to give a reddish brown design when placed ne...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on May 15, 2004

Lizzy's Sweetgrass Baskets
1711 N Highway 17
Charleston, South Carolina 29464
(843) 849-0544

About the Writer

Mary Dickinson

Mary Dickinson
Marlborough, Connecticut

Popular Charleston Hotels

French Quarter Inn
User Rating: 5 out of 5
Harbour View Inn
User Rating: 5 out of 5
Courtyard Charleston Historic District
User Rating: 5 out of 5
Mills House Hotel
User Rating: 4 out of 5
Vendue Inn
User Rating: 4 out of 5

Drayton Hall
User Rating: 4 out of 5
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
User Rating: 4 out of 5
Aiken-Rhett House
User Rating: 4 out of 5
South Carolina Aquarium
User Rating: 4 out of 5
USS Yorktown at Patriots Point
User Rating: 4 out of 5