Around town in Charleston

Sorry for the delay folks, internet access has been sparse recently.

After the trip to Fort Sumter, Mom and I checked into our hotel and then went for a walk through the historic district of Charleston. The next morning we took a tour bus ride through the same area. Charleston's historic district is huge. I think it is the largest historic district in the US. Buidings have the standard plaque noting it as a historic building, and many have an additional sign which gives information about the original occupants or other tidbits of interest about the building.

Before the Civil War, Charleston was a wealthy port city. The primary exports were cotton and rice. The accumelation of wealth led to the construction of many huge beautiful homes on the eastern end of the peninsula. The economy of the South collapsed after the Civil War. While obviously bad for southerners at the time, this collapse is good for those of us who want to see what a city looked like in the early 1800's. The south was so poor, it was ignored by the restoration movement in the 1920's. I don't know much about this movement, but it souded like it was a "knock down and rebuild" movement. The buildings were left alone until the 1950's when people with wealth and an apprectiation for these buildings started to restore them.

As we rode in the tour van, our guide pointed out details of craftmanship all around us. Much of the ornate iron fences and gates were hand hammered. The sad point that our guide made was that many of craftsmen who worked on these huge ornate homes are unkown. The reason? They were slaves.