Occupying the lower tip of the peninsula formed by the Ashley and Cooper rivers-named for Anthony Ashley Cooper, one of the English Lords Proprietor-Charleston's historic district encompasses the area specified in the original 17C city plan, called t..

Unlike other Charleston historic homes that have been restored to their former glamour, the Aiken-Rhett House has been preserved as it appeared c.1860. Built as a Federal-style brick single house in 1817, the home was purchased by the Aiken family wh..

The high seawall that lines the Cooper River side of Charleston Harbor replaced the masonry wall built in 1700 to fortify the city. Strengthened over the years to ward off hurricanes, this wall became known as the High Battery for the gun emplacement..

In colonial times, the river served as the main route to the stately plantations that faced the Ashley River. By land, an arduous back road traced part of an ancient Cherokee Indian trail. Today, tree-lined Highway 61 (Ashley River Road) provides eas..

Consisting of a three-block row of vendors' sheds, the market is fronted by 1840 Greek Revival Market Hall (Market St. at Meeting St.), designed by Edward Brickell White to resemble the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome. Today the long sheds offer a ..

Lawyer and patriot Thomas Heyward was the original owner of this red-brick double house. The site on which the home stands is within the boundaries of the old walled city. Inside, the rooms are decorated with a remarkable collection of 18C Charleston..

Flanked by a formal English garden, Nathaniel Russell's Federal-style residence was completed in 1808. Inside, the reception room opens onto a hall containing a "flying" staircase-a freestanding spiral that circles up to the third floor. Re..

Scotsman and cotton trader Charles Edmondston built this home in 1825. When the cotton market turned sour 13 years later, Edmondston sold the house to monied Charleston rice planter Charles Alston, who added the third-floor piazza and other Greek Rev..

The only plantation house on the Ashley River to survive the Revolutionary and Civil Wars intact, Drayton Hall was occupied by seven generations of the Drayton family, wealthy English planters who came to the Lowcountry from Barbados in the late 17C...

Sweeping down to the Ashley River, 110 acres of terraced lawns and formal 18C English gardens burst into their fullest glory in early spring. Laid out in 1741 by Henry Middleton—who was elected president of the First Continental Congress in 1774—the ..

Across the street from the visitor center, America's first museum was founded in 1773. Now housed in a contemporary structure, the collections cover Charleston and the Lowcountry's social and natural history from pre-settlement days to the present. A..

Designed by gentleman-architect Gabriel Manigault for his brother Joseph, this stately brick manse (1803) captures the lifestyle of prosperous early-19C Huguenot planters. Typical of the Adam style of architecture, the house incorporates a variety of..

Overlooking the Cooper River and Charleston Harbor, the aquarium houses 10,000 creatures representing some 500 species. The facility, which opened in May 2000, focuses on the aquatic environments found in South Carolina, from Blue Ridge Mountain stre..

Built by the British in 1771 as an Exchange and Customs House, this Palladian-style building was where South Carolina Patriots ratified the US Constitution in 1788. Some of the very men who signed the document had been imprisoned downstairs in the gl..

With 24,000sq ft of living space, Calhoun Mansion ranks as Charleston's largest single residence. Built in 1876 for wealthy banker George Williams, the home passed to Williams' daughter Sally and her husband, Patrick Calhoun (grandson of statesman Jo..

Named for the gleaming white oyster beds that the first settlers found on this site in 1670, White Point occupies the southern tip of Charleston's peninsula.

This popular tourist attraction comprises a 500-acre informal garden known for its spring-blooming azaleas, and a plantation house that once formed part of the 17C estate owned by Englishman Thomas Drayton. More recent additions to the site include n..

The mission of this excellent small facility is to preserve the history and culture of African Americans in Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry. Temporary exhibits highlight noteworthy persons in Charleston's black history, the slave trade, ..

Rising northwest of the historic district along the Ashley River are the white Moorish-style notched walls of the Citadel Military College of South Carolina. The Citadel enrolled its first cadets in 1842.

Originally intended to be a grand public square, the intersection of Broad and Meeting Streets is now graced with public buildings that represent state, federal and municipal law: the 1788 Charleston County Court House (northwest corner); the 1896 Re..