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Historic Houses and Buildings
Nathaniel
Russell House The Nathaniel Russell House interprets the lives of
both the Russells and their African-American slaves through the workings
of a grand Federal townhouse in one of the antebellum South's premier
urban centers.
Aiken-Rhett
House was built by merchant John Robinson in 1818 and greatly expanded
and redecorated by Governor and Mrs. William Aiken Jr. in the 1830s
and 1850s, the property has survived virtually unaltered since 1858.
As an intact "urban plantation," the Aiken-Rhett property speaks powerfully
about the culture of early Charleston and the interconnections among
all members of the household. Original outbuildings include the kitchens,
slave quarters, stables, privies and cattle sheds, offering glimpses
of life in the nineteenth-century city unavailable anywhere else.
Old
Powder Magazine is the only public building remaining in North or
South Carolina from the period of the Lords Proprietors, that group
of English noblemen who originally owned and ruled the joint province
of Carolina. In the late 1600s, the construction of walls around the
city and the building of harbor forts added to the defensive character
of Charleston, which was repeatedly subject to onslaughts from marauding
Spanish naval vessels from St. Augustine. The Powder Magazine was crucial
to storage of powder for defense of the city. Although replaced by a
newer magazine in 1748, it continued to serve effectively for its purpose
into the period of the American Revolution
.
Edmondston-Alston
House was built in 1825 on Charleston's High Battery and is one
of the city's most splendid dwellings, a gracious example of early nineteenth-century
commitment to elegance, style and comfort. Because of its view of the
Charleston harbor, its history and elegant interior spaces, this historic
house was featured on the popular television series, "America's Castles."
Alston family furniture, silver, books and paintings remain in the high-ceilinged
rooms much as they have been for over a century and a half.
Photos courtesy of Charleston Post Card Company ©