Charleston Charms

If you, like I, long for the days when good manners served to make life more pleasant (not that you've ever actually experienced such a thing post 1948, what with baby boomers over-populating the country and their 2.6 cars jamming all the roads while their offspring believe a mall built in the ‘80’s represents "charm" and the entire world is their phone booth) it's tough not to fall for Charleston's version of the good life. Purported to be the most polite city in America, it is in a class by itself.

Manners alone won’t make a city perfect. Anywhere life dwells brings the good with the bad, and as many trials and hardships have invaded Charleston’s history (wars, economic devastation, hurricanes and floods) as glories have filled its high-fallutin’ heydays.

Taking it all in stride with dignity is the distinguishing characteristic of the well-born. Keeping memories and spirits above the fray is the essence of class. Considering this, the likelihood that you'll have a well-mannered, wonderful time in modern day Charleston is very high, indeed.

Quick Tips:

Walking tour and carriage tour options abound for checking out Charleston's primary sights including the historic homes and gardens in the High Battery and East Bay areas, known locally as "south of Broad." Walking specialty tours including Pirates, Ghosts, and Civil War themes might appeal to those with these particular interests, while the Water Tour companies take guests off shore for deeper exploration of the harbors and Fort Sumter, where, as we all know, the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

The Charleston Museum, Patriot's Point and Aquarium are also options well worth mention and a visit. The City Market is one of the oldest permanent markets in the country still offering a wide array of items for sale in open air stalls. The area around the Market is jam-packed with historic inns, restaurants and bars providing a lively and engaging nightlife. The College of Charleston, the oldest municipal college in the country, and the Marion Park, where many of the students congregate, offers another option for strolling beautiful grounds within the city.

And no visit to Charleston is complete without touring the Plantations on Ashley Road, Middleton Place, Drayton Hall and Magnolia Plantation.

Best Way To Get Around:

It's not far from the Charleston airport to downtown Charleston. Once you are there, you will not really need a car to access all the wonders of Charleston proper. A CARTA transit pass will give unlimited rides on all five DASH routes which take you to all points of interest from Calhoun to Battery and from Ashley River to the Cooper. Riding the horsedrawn carriages is a very popular option as it taking the organized walking tour. We, however, walked and walked and walked...sat a spell and walked some more. Charleston is one of the most walkable cities you could find, in fact, as there is always something to see along the way and very little traffic to disrupt your pace.

The grand hotel Francis Marion was constructed during the roaring twenties’ and promised to be the grandest of the hotels in the Carolina’s lowcountry. Named for the renown "swamp fox" of Revolutionary War fame, it was built by a group of investors during a era of amazing prosperity at a cost of $1.5 million. The dozen crystal chandeliers and ornate fixtures in hotel lobby offer some indication of the grandeur this place represented during its heyday.

Unfortunately, the roaring twenties came to a crashing halt in 1929, and along with it the hotel fell upon hard times rather quickly after its opening in 1925. Not a very long history in respect to a city that has been there for four hundred years!

But the Francis Marion hotel would rise again with an extensive renovation after its designation as a historical site by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. As you wander the lobbies of the Francis Marion and the streets of Charleston in general, you can’t help but feel deep gratitude to those with foresight who fought to keep these gems of history intact after so many years of decline and neglect.

Regardless, there’s a price to pay for staying in an historic hotel beyond the high tariff. Although our suite was spacious as promised and did have the convenience of internet connection, the bathrooms were pitifully small and provided no space at all to store belongings. The pedestal sinks have a mirror above them but no cabinet, no drawers, no under sink storage, no shelves. I had to move the coffee cart into the tiny bathroom to serve as temporary home to my potions and lotions.

Being so cramped, I used the mirror on the back of the closet door to put on my face the first morning of our stay. I swear, something caught my eye behind me, a sort of moving little cloud. I turned to see what it was. Nothing. Again, I returned to my task and saw it again! Now I wondered whether the blob was one of Charleston’s famed ghosts. The image of someone jumping from that ninth story window suddenly flooded my imagination.

I’m not so silly to give this sort of thing more than a passing thought, but when the bellman brought it up, "seen the ghost yet?" I said I thought I had and added, "he jumped, didn’t he?" He confirmed the story of "little ghost." I took ghost sightings as a special amenity tucked into the package to make up for those tiny bathrooms.

We might have moved to another hotel, certainly not from fear -- but from the inconvenience, until we spent the first night sleeping in the Westin’s signature "heavenly bed." After experiencing that most restful and wonderful dreamland, I understood perfectly why the ghosts won’t leave. We didn’t either.

After walking from our hotel down King and Meeting Streets, through Charleston Place, on to the City Market area and then the Waterfront Park, we needed a bit of refreshment. Turning the corner on Queen Street after extensive investigation of restored buildings and townhomes, having ferreting out enough secret gardens to satisfy me, we saw a sign for Café Blossom. "That’s where the concierge said to have lunch!" my husband exclaimed happily at the sight of it. My feet were so happy to hear that!

Café Blossom is situated near the Place Vendue, which makes it a convenient and likely stop after a long site-seeing stroll through Charleston’s historic districts. It is one of the more upscale restaurants that is open for lunch and features a signature display kitchen and wood burning oven.

Light, airy and busy, the restaurant also has the option of al fresco dining in the little court yard that runs the length of the café. We choose to stay indoors as it was a bit chilly that morning and we’d been bracing ourselves in the brisk wind for hours. Sitting right before the roaring fire of the brick oven was a comfort and pleasure as the scent wafted round our heads and up to the cathedral ceilings at the center of the restaurant.

How can you go someplace where a wood-burning oven takes such center stage without ordering a pizza? We couldn’t and decided immediately to try the four cheese and the Stomboli version (with Oak Roasted Chicken, Red Onion, Pepperoncinis, Roma Tomatoes, Provolone and Parmesan on a Tomato-Mushroom Ragout) of the specialty of the house. The wood oven really did make a difference influencing the flavors of all the ingredients used. It was terrific.

Other menu items include pastas and risottos, wasabi rubbed tuna, artichoke crusted pork chops and tuna nicoise. The desserts and pastries are all made in house and even though Tiramisu and Sour Cream Apple Tart are hard to resist, we managed to be satisfied with our pizzas for our light lunch introduction to Cafe Blossom’s delicious fare

When we heard that George Washington once lost his wooden teeth after tipping a few at the tavern that is now McCrady's, the first thing we did was to make reservations. When we saw that chef Michael Kramer was spotlighted in the Charleston magazine left in our hotel room along with recipes for some of the restaurant’s signature dishes including, Tartare of Yellowfin, we were certain we’d made the right choice. When we read of the restaurant’s extensive wine list, including vintages seldom offered, we were positive.

Stepping into McCrady’s, set in one of the country’s oldest existing taverns built in 1778, you know you are in for a treat. The romantic ambiance is one that can’t be reproduced by purely modern means; it requires this bit of surprising detail that only comes from techniques and finishes used ages ago. A warm fireplace lights the first room and cozy niches provide the comfort a great dining experience deserves.

We were taken into the back room, not quite as sensual as the first, yet still wonderfully inviting, and were seated immediately. Our server, well-trained and attentive, seeming as delighted with the food as everyone else who dines here. He made recommendations and described the dishes in detail, making the choices somehow all the more difficult to settle on.

There was no doubt we’d be having the touted yellowtail tuna tartare to start, always a favorite dish for us. This one was sublime. This one was worth making a trip to Charleston. This would go down in the annuls as one of the best ever with its perfect balance of flavors and ingredients that enhanced the tuna perfectly without overpowering.

The coffee rubbed tenderloin was another highly memorable presentation. The coffee coating gave a deep chocolate appearance to the meat, as if it’d been grilled but the medium rare finish extended to the very edges of the cut. The waiter explained that the meats at McCrady’s are never grilled, but pan-seared to retain the moisture and flavor and allow for more precise cooking. If this is the result, I shall never grill a steak on an open flame again! A veal special proved to be another outstanding choice, though it would be hard to top the excellent flavors of the coffee-rubbed filet.

Though perfectly satisfied with our meal thus far, we still had room for desserts since the portions are determined so as not to leave a bite behind. Happy as magnolias in bloom, we lingered while sipping the balance of our exquisite Rhone, indulging ourselves once again in the waiter’s favorites, the Brown Butter Almond Cake with Poached Pears and Lavendar Ice Cream and the Bananas Foster Cake. Which one would I have next time? Both!

Don’t go to Charleston and miss McCrady’s. If you dine here, you will remember the flavors, ambiance and experience for a long, long time to come.

Hank's was another restaurant that consistently received mention from locals when asked for a dining recommendation. We weren’t about to miss out on what promised to be "a classic Charleston Fish House" offering all those famous lowcountry specialties such as she-crab chowder, boullabaisse and oysters, clams, crab and mussels at the raw bar.

We had a short wait at the long, saloon style bar where some happy customers were being served their "raw bar" selections along with drinks. The dining room is very large and all on one level giving a sort of community gathering house feel to the place albeit its general upscale ambiance. The decor is quite simple yet warm and comfortable, suggesting that the focus here was essentially on the seafood being served.

Before we even had time to toast our chardonnays, we were escorted to a great table at the front window facing the City Market’s lively street scene. The dozen or so crispy little fritters that our server placed at our table were gone faster than either of us could have possibly eaten them. (That ghost must have tailed us in here.) But the fish, and local style fish at that, is the reason to come to Hanks’. Start with the richest oyster stew imaginable, a butter and cream bath for the bivalves, or perhaps a steaming bowl of mussels in the shell, as we did. Take your time and move on to the main event; a grilled seafood platter featuring shrimp, crabcake, flounder and scallops and that unique Charleston gold rice. Here you can have your fill (and more!) of what is meant by lowcountry style seafood dining. It’s rich and filling and wonderful.

My husband ordered the seared ahi and though he had been absolutely thrilled with his appetizer portion of steamed mussels (the best, he exclaimed) he was a bit disappointed with the tuna saying it was only "okay." Luckily, my heaping platter had enough on it for both of us and I graciously shared, but only after giving him the old, "when in Rome" lecture about the value of ordering the regional specialties when you go to a regional restaurant.

I offer the same advise to readers here. Stick with the local preparations of locally caught seafood and you will be happy as a clam with your visit to Hank’s.

Part One of Two
The winds were brisk along the Battery that afternoon, so we stepped into the first place we were invited.

Waiting in the vestibule for the 4 p.m. tour a small crowd began to mount. We were advised by the little ladies who keep the peace there that we could also wait out on the veranda, but strictly nowhere else until our guide arrived.

We huddled in the wicker rockers and tried our hand at the "courting bench" apparently created by the owner as a means to keep an arthritic relative "active." A sort of long see-saw on rockers, younger folks tried out the contraption for the fun of it and leaned that the rocking and swaying also managed to bring them eventually closer together as they edged toward the center. At the unique moment of unity, a kiss and a promise was expected.

The guide began her tour of the interior explaining that it had been built originally by a young man who had come to the new world at the age of seventeen from Scotland to build his fortune. In a short time he had earned enough from his rice plantations to build one of the first homes in the new area of Charleston’s waterfront on reclaimed wetlands. He married and raised thirteen children in this home until speculations on another commodity, wheat, and an ensuing financial panic forced him to sell the home. (Don’t worry, he recovered beautifully, later on.)

The new owner, Charles Alston, from a wealthy rice plantation dynasty, bought the house and offered changes to increase its original grandeur, including the addition of the upstairs verandas and columns which emulated the Greek Revival style of that period. Most of the furnishings which visitors see in the home are originals that had been keep safe by his offspring and heirs over the centuries following.

What treasures they are! Faux marble wall finishes, popular even back then, adorn most of the walls in colors that have been authenticated by scientific analysis. One of the first gas chandeliers installed into the city hangs ever still in the front foyer, lighting the series of Italian engravings from the 18th century which hang there, acquisitions from the families European travels.

A Girandole mirror, circa 1810 hangs in the dining room and 18th century silver pieces from renown smiths in London are displayed in a glass cabinet. Upstairs, a magnificent library with a collection of 2,000 leather bound rare edition books collected by three generations of the Alston family are on display along with an impressive 18th century telescope and rifle made by James Purdey. We are told that a man was judged not only by his wealth, but by his collection of books. Great critieria!

Read part two, for more fascinating facts.

Susan Pringle Alston, daughter of Charles, lived in this house until her death in 1921, and is credited with much of the home’s preservation. She never married, and little wonder. Although she was certainly attractive enough to attract a mate, she was reluctant to succumb to the social laws of her lifetime that would require that she relinquish her assets to a husband upon marriage. Instead, she left her fortunes to a distant cousin upon her demise, one that continues to occupy the third floor of the home even today.

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.

Just ten miles outside of Charleston down beautiful Ashley River Road, where giant trees draped with wisteria and Spanish moss line the route, visitors can visit the plantations where Charleston's "charm" really all began.

The Magnolia Plantations, listed on the National Register of Historical Places by its distinction as being the northern hemisphere's oldest established gardens and the country's oldest man-made tourist attraction, was our choice of the many available in this area. The gardens are as beautiful as I ever expected, but the history was more than I would have dreamed.

Although Magnolia has attracted tourists with its spring-time blooms since the devastation to family resources following the Civil War made it a necessity to the owners, since Rev. Drayton’s death in 1890, the plantation has continued to attract visitors year-round by the addition of plantings that bloom all through the year. Managed still by the heirs of the original owners, the plantation now emphasizes conservation with 500 acres of former rice fields as protected wetlands for an extensive collection of waterfowl.

Options for visitors touring Magnolia Plantation today include: a nature trail, with a 45-minuted narrated tram tour, a nature boat tour of an ancient flooded 150-acre ricefield, the Audubon Swamp Gardens with 60-acres of blackwater cypress and tupelo swamp traversed by bridges and boardwalks where alligators and other wildlife thrive in their natural setting. We just walked and walked the 500 acres ourselves and marveled at the blooming beauty all around us. My husband lost himself in the horticultural maze modeled after one in Henry VIII's gardens. I stood on many a romantic bridge defying the alligators in the waters below me.

A house tour is available, though the furnishings of this current house which was barged down the Ashley when the second was burned, is much more modest considering the family’s change of fortune following the war but historic nonetheless. For collectors there is an impressive Art Gallery and gift shop located in the lower level of the plantation house where outstanding Audubon prints and exquisite sculpture and art by other lowcountry artists is available.

The first thing I did upon returning home from visiting Charleston and Magnolia Plantation, was to watch "Gone With The Wind," never my favorite movie in the past. So maudlin, so over-dramatic, so Southern! But this time as I watched, now recognizing the landscapes, I found myself identifying totally with the characters, realizing for the first time that it told the real story of so many families’ and the history of our nation that affected them so dramatically.

Of course now I've fallen under its spell, like so many wiser millions before me. And all because a visit to places I’d only heard about before suddenly became very real and not so far away. Read on, if you’d like a short history of the Plantation and the fascinating family that founded it: the Drayton’s of England.

Distinguished Draytons
Thomas Drayton, being of noble English ancestry (his ancestors were distinguished for service in the Battle of Hastings by the awarding of an ancient Saxon home built in 800 A. D. in Northhampton, later known as Drayton House) left the homeland in the 1600's with his son to seek their fortunes in the British colony of Barbados.

Soon, the colony had become overcrowded with fortune seekers, and the Drayton’s moved northward to the new English settlement of Charles Towne. The marriage of Thomas, Jr. and Anne Fox, daughter of another Barbadian recently moved to this new area, Stephen Fox, brought the Drayton newlyweds this tract of land ten miles from the settlement on the Ashley River.

Sons of this very affluent family continued to be educated in England, and proper careers for "distinguished" gentlemen were somewhat limited to ministry and armed forces. Thomas Drayton was a member of His Majesty’s Council and Royal Justice for Carolina. His brother, Royal Judge John Drayton sat on His Majesty’s council and was considered to be the wealthiest man in the Colony at the time of his death. Royal Chief Justin William Drayton, Thomas Jr.’s son, was also Justice for the Carolinas, aide to General Lyttleman in the Cherokee War and member of the South Carolina Supreme Court before being appointed by President Washington as First Judge of the US District Court. He also worked with Thomas Jefferson as co-founders of the South Carolina Society of Agriculture to import several varieties of superior crops to America.

William Henry Drayton, a leader of South Carolina’s Liberal Patriots, and author of the Bill of Rights, was elected President of the Revolutionary Committee of Safety in 1775, and ordered the firing of the first shots of the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia where he died at age 37.

John Drayton, his son, was twice the Governor of South Carolina and appointed U.S. Judge by President Madison. He founded the University of South Carolina. Thomas Fenwich Drayton, great grandson of Thomas Jr., commanded troops on Hilton Head island as a Confederate General, where he opposed his brother, Admiral Percival Drayton, the commander of a Union vessel which captured the island. (Talk about sibling rivalry!) It is said that the reason that Drayton Hall was the only building spared during the Civil War siege in the area was this brotherly connection. (But it's also said that Southerners don't like hearing that a Union General might have been so decent after all.)

History of the Plantation
The first house was completed by Thomas and Anne Drayton in 1680 along with the planting and development of the extensive gardens which continued for decades including the first formal portion known as "Flowerdale." At the same time, second son, Judge John Drayton, built Drayton Hall, not far away, before purchasing Magnolia from his nephew, who had inherited the land at the time of his father’s death in 1717.

The final assaults on Charleston by the British in 1780 was staged at the plantation site. Through a major military blunder, Charleston's troops, desperately needed by Washington, surrendered to the British, allowing Cornwallis freedom to move north and "crush Washington's weary troops." But of course, this didn't happen. Cornwallis instead allowed himself to be cornered on the peninsula with the unexpected arrival of a French blockade. Instead of crushing the revolutionary troops, he surrendered.

Judge John Drayton was killed fleeing the British invasion. His son, Thomas, inherited Magnolia while his second son, Charles, took over Drayton Hall. Oddly enough, John’s oldest son, patriot William Henry Drayton, received little save the acclaim he brought unto himself.

The original home burned about thirty years after the Declaration of Independence, but the gardens, thriving now with 25 acres formally planted, continued to flourish. When the grandson of Thomas inherited the plantation suddenly, his older brother having been shot in a hunting accident at the young age of 22, he was in England studying for the ministry and surprised to suddenly be one of the wealthiest landowners of the South. Despite this fact, he continued his ministry along with a deep devotion to developing the beauty of the land and gardens he had inheritied. This was prompted by the desire to please his Philadelphia bride for whom he attempted to "create an earthly paradise in which Julia may forever forget Philadelphia and her desire to return there."

For this devotion, Rev. John Grimke Drayton is credited most with the development of the nationally acclaimed beauty of the gardens and for first introducing azaleas and camellias to America.

But just fifty years after the second house, (which had also since burned) was built, General Sherman’s "marauders" attacked and burned the home of Rev. Drayton and Julia. During this seige, the family had fled north, but the story of the capture of slave foreman, Adam Bennett, illustrates the devotion he had for the plantation family and Magnolia.

Even as he was strung up from a tree by Union troops, Mr. Bennett refused to reveal the whereabouts of the family’s buried treasures. Impressed by his character, the Union troops cut him free. He then journeyed the 250 miles on foot to the location of Rev. Drayton and brought him the sad news that the house had been destroyed, but the good news that the gardens, probably his most beloved aspect of the plantation, were still intact.

With all the family's riches basically laid to waste, Rev. Dr. Drayton continued to expand his gardens to increasing recognition nationally. Soon it was cited as one of the three great attractions of North America along with Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. This was fortunate, as financial necessity resulted in the garden’s being opened to the public in 1870, making it the oldest man-made tourist attraction in America.

Rev. Drayton’s daughter, Julia Drayton Hastie, inherited the plantation when her father passed away in 1890. Since then, the grandchildren and great grandchildren -- heirs of many a great man -- have expanded the meaning of Magnolia beyond sheer beauty to include conservation efforts of the 500 acres of wildlife sanctuary and 60 acres of blackwater swamp. An irrevocable will guarantees for the next century (at least) that Magnolia's "notable past may prove to have been just a beginning…"

I have a feeling this is just the beginning.