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Unusual Facts about Charleston

April 16, 2014 by

We love living here in Charleston, partly because the history of the city is so fascinating. For example, did you know that Charleston has survived the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War as well as pirates and hurricanes? All three wars had battles that took place in or near Charleston, and the city has survived to tell the tale.  

Read on for more fascinating, unusual, and fun facts about Charleston and South Carolina.

  The Isle of Palms is thought to be at least 25,000 years old and first inhabited by the Seewee Indians.

  • Four men from Charleston signed the Declaration of Independence: Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge.
  • Charleston is known as “The Holy City” because of the number of churches.
  • South Carolina was the eighth state to join and the first state to secede from the U.S. It had to print its own stamps and money because it couldn’t participate in the federal postal system.
  • In 1736, the Dock Street Theater was America’s first. In 1773, the Charleston Museum, America’s first, opened.
  • The first golf game in the U.S. took place in Charleston.
  • The city’s baseball team, the Charleston Riverdogs, is partly owned by actor Bill Murray.
  • The Arthur J. Ravenel Jr. Bridge is North America’s longest cable bridge and connects Charleston with Mount Pleasant.
  • Charleston, which became a city in 1783, is about halfway between Washington, D.C. and Miami, Florida.
  • Citadel Cadets on Morris Island fired the first shot of the Civil War.
  • Some buildings in downtown Charleston have metal circles about the size of a plate on the exterior. They are the ends of earthquake rods, which were added to buildings after the Charleston earthquake of 1886.
  • South Carolina has two state mottoes: ‘Dum Spiro Spero’ (‘While I breathe I hope’) and ‘Animis Opibusque Parati (‘Ready in Soul and Resource’).
  • The Port of Charleston is the largest on the southeast Atlantic coast. Close to 10 million tons of cargo go through the port every year.
  • The first significant victory in the American Revolution was the Battle of Fort Sullivan.
  • Charleston’s first female newspaper publisher and editor was Elizabeth Timothy.
  • Sweetgrass basket making has taken place in the Mount Pleasant community for more than 300 years.
  • Historic Charleston homes and buildings have decks that face south or west to ensure a breeze in the summer, as air conditioning didn’t exist then.
  • On Nov. 2, 1954, Strom Thurmond became the first U.S. senator elected by write-in vote. Thurmond received 139,106 votes to Edgar Brown’s 80,956 votes.
  • When slaves were sold at the Old Exchange Building, they had to wear tags with their assigned number and skills.

Do you have a little-known fact about Charleston to share below?

Filed Under: All Things Charleston Tagged With: ,

5 Buildings in Charleston with Fascinating Histories

April 9, 2014 by

The rich history of Charleston lives on today in some of its buildings, such as the Old Exchange and the Vendue. Read on to discover the fascinating history of these historic sites.

The Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon

During the 1700s, Charleston’s wealth grew as the shipping trade took off. As with anywhere that has a booming trade industry, the city needed somewhere to manage the trade, and the Royal Exchange and Custom House was built. The Exchange had a dual purpose: a business house / Post Office and a prison for pirates. It was also a meeting place for ratifying the Constitution. The Old Exchange is still owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution and offers public tours.

Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens

From the website: Boone Hall Plantation was founded in 1681 when Englishman Major John Boone came to Charleston and established a lucrative plantation and gracious home on the banks of Wampacheone Creek. The family and descendants of Major Boone were influential in the history of South Carolina, the colonies and the nation.

The McRae Family purchased the plantation in 1955, and it was Mrs. McRae who furnished the house with antiques and began giving tours. Today, the McRae Family still owns the property, and they continue to make improvements to the plantation so that visitors can experience what plantation life was like.

The Vendue Hotel

Located in Charleston’s French Quarter, the Vendue was originally a warehouse used by French merchants engaged in the shipping trade, with all the interesting and sometimes out-of-bounds activity that entails. Sailors who needed a place to stay asked the owners of the warehouse to help them, and the first rooms were added to the warehouse.

During the Civil War, the original building was badly damaged and later rebuilt as a two-story brick building. Many well-known people, including the first female newspaper editor, Elizabeth Timothy, have stayed at the Vendue. 

Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie

From the website: Fort Sumter National Monument incorporates several sites around Charleston Harbor, which tell the unique stories of the people and places that shaped the United States of America. 

Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War upon Federal troops at Fort Sumter at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861. The roots of that conflict are buried deep within the stories of the development of the United States. Fort Sumter would continue to serve as the focal point in Charleston throughout the Civil War.

Sullivan’s Island has long served as Charleston Harbor’s first line of defense against disease or foreign invasion. Quarantine stations checked every person that came into the harbor, including enslaved Africans. Later a palmetto log fort was built by Colonel Moultrie and the Second South Carolina Infantry. This fort came to be known as Fort Moultrie, and was replaced and modified as technology and warfare changed through the mid-twentieth century.

The Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center at Liberty Square sits on the site of Gadsden’s Wharf, where hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought into the United States. Today the site interprets the causes and catalysts of the Civil War and the results of that war on the nation.

What is your favorite Charleston building and why? Tell us below.

 

 

Filed Under: All Things Charleston Tagged With: ,

A Quick History of Charleston

February 12, 2014 by

Charleston’s history is one of the most interesting, dynamic, and rich of any city in the United States. The city was named after King Charles II, who granted the Carolina territory to a group of his friends, the Lords Proprietors. In 1670, the city was settled and given the name Charles Towne.

Renamed Charleston after the Revolutionary War, the town’s location guaranteed it would become a rich city quickly, and it did. In less than 100 years, it grew from a modest colonial seaport to one of the wealthiest areas in the colonies. The prosperity continued through the middle of the nineteenth century, due to imports, trade, and the growing of cotton and rice.

Charleston’s wealth, growth, and location near the ocean meant it was often under attack. Not only was the city assaulted by other countries such as France, but it also battled seafaring pirates and Native Americans. To stifle attack, the city built a fortification wall, and Charleston became known as the Walled City. Two buildings remain from that time: the Powder Magazine, which stored all the city’s gunpowder, and the Pink House, a colonial tavern.

During the American Revolution, Charleston was of course a major player. Colonists participated in their own protests against British rule, including seizing tea and storing it in the Exchange and Custom House. In 1774, the Continental Congress was elected in Charleston, and the city was the target of British attacks. In 1780, General Benjamin Lincoln was forced to surrender over 5000 men, and the Siege of Charleston was the greatest American defeat of the Revolution. The British controlled the city until 1782, and the city’s name was officially changed to Charleston the next year.

African and Indian slavery was common in Charleston from the beginning, and the people were firmly for states’ rights in the middle of the nineteenth century. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. On January 9, 1861, Charleston’s Citadel cadets fired the first shots of the Civil War on the Union ship Star of the West as it entered Charleston’s harbor. Three months later, in April of 1861, Confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter and began the Civil War. Charleston was the site of the first successful submarine warfare in 1864 when the H.L. Hunley attacked the USS Housatonic. Union troops entered the city in 1865 and seized the United States Arsenal and the Citadel Military Academy, turning it into federal garrison.

After the war, Charleston was financially devastated, but by reducing its dependence on agriculture, it again became a trade center. As in the rest of the country, during the first few decades of the twentieth century, industry and trade increased dramatically. Later, the military, tourism, and medical facilities ensured Charleston would continue to be a major city in the South.

Today, Charleston is revered for its history, its resilience, and its people.

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