Moon Coastal Carolinas

by Jim Morekis

  On the Battery with the Rutledges, Captain Hartstein was introduced to me. He has done some heroic things—brought home some ships and is a man of mark. Afterward he sent me a beautiful bouquet, not half so beautiful, however, as Mr. Robert Gourdin’s, which already occupied the place of honor on my center table. What a dear, delightful place is Charleston!

  Chesnut was a Southern patriot, and as you might imagine some of her observations are wildly politically incorrect by today’s standards. But while supportive of slavery and suspicious of the motives of abolitionists—”People in those places expect more virtue from a plantation African than they can insure in practise among themselves with all their own high moral surroundings,” she says of white Northern abolitionists—she does allow for a few nuanced looks at the lives of African Americans in the South, as in this observation about her own house servants after the fall of Fort Sumter:

  You could not tell that they even heard the awful roar going on in the bay, though it has been dinning in their ears night and day. People talk before them as if they were chairs and tables. They make no sign. Are they stolidly stupid? or wiser than we are; silent and strong, biding their time?

  While the diary begins on a confident note regarding the South’s chances in the war, as the news from the battlefield gets worse we see how Southerners cope with the sure knowledge that they will lose:

  I know how it feels to die. I have felt it again and again. For instance, some one calls out, “Albert Sidney Johnston is killed.” My heart stands still. I feel no more. I am, for so many seconds, so many minutes, I know not how long, utterly without sensation of any kind—dead; and then, there is that great throb, that keen agony of physical pain, and the works are wound up again. The ticking of the clock begins, and I take up the burden of life once more.

  Southern historian C. Vann Woodward compiled an annotated edition of the Chesnut diary in 1981, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, which won a Pulitzer Prize the following year. Chesnut’s words came to even wider national exposure due to the use of extensive quotations from her diary in Ken Burns’s PBS miniseries The Civil War.

  As you might expect, you can only visit by boat, specifically those run by the approved concessionaire Fort Sumter Tours (843/881-7337, www.fortsumtertours.com, $18 adults, $16 seniors, $11 ages 6-11, free under age 6). Once at the fort, there’s no charge for admission. Ferries leave from Liberty Square at Aquarium Wharf on the peninsula three times a day during the high season (Apr.-Oct.); call or check the website for times. Make sure to arrive about 30 minutes before the ferry departs. You can also get to Fort Sumter by ferry from Patriots Point at Mount Pleasant through the same concessionaire.

  Budget at least 2.5 hours for the whole trip, including an hour at Fort Sumter. At Liberty Square on the peninsula is the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center (340 Concord St., www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm, daily 8:30am-5pm, free), so you can learn more about where you’re about to go. Once at the fort, you can be enlightened by the regular ranger talks on the fort’s history and construction (generally at 11am and 2:30pm), take in the interpretive exhibits throughout the site, and enjoy the view of the spires of the Holy City from afar. For many, though, the highlight is the boat trip itself, with beautiful views of Charleston Harbor and the islands of the Cooper River estuary. If you want to skip Sumter, you can still take an enjoyable 90-minute ferry ride around the harbor and past the fort on the affiliated Spiritline Cruises (800/789-3678, www.spiritlinecruises.com, $20 adults, $12 ages 6-11, free under age 6). Ferries depart from Liberty Square at Aquarium Wharf on the peninsula. Purchase tickets at the visitors center.

  Fort Sumter

  Some visitors are disappointed to find many of the fort’s gun embrasures bricked over. This was done during the Spanish-American War, when the old fort was turned into an earthwork and the newer Battery Huger (pronounced “Huge-EE”) was built on top of it.

  FRENCH QUARTER

  Unlike the New Orleans version, Charleston’s French Quarter is Protestant in origin and flavor. Though not actually given the name until a preservation effort in the 1970s, historically this area was indeed the main place of commerce for the city’s population of French Huguenots, primarily a merchant class who fled religious persecution in their native country. Today the five-block area—roughly bounded by East Bay, Market Street, Meeting Street, and Broad Street—contains some of Charleston’s most historic buildings, its most evocative old churches and graveyards, its most charming narrow streets, and its most tasteful art galleries.

  S St. Philip’s Episcopal Church

  With a pedigree dating back to the colony’s fledgling years, St. Philip’s Episcopal Church (142 Church St., 843/722-7734, www.stphilipschurchsc.org, sanctuary Mon.-Fri. 10am-noon and 2pm-4pm, services Sun. 8:15am) is the oldest Anglican congregation south of Virginia. That pedigree gets a little complicated and downright tragic at times, but any connoisseur of Charleston history needs to be clear on the fine points: The first St. Philip’s was built in 1680 at the corner of Meeting Street and Broad Street, the present site of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. That first St. Philip’s was badly damaged by a hurricane in 1710, and the city fathers approved the building of a new sanctuary dedicated to the saint on Church Street. However, that building was nearly destroyed by yet another hurricane during construction. Fighting with local Native Americans further delayed rebuilding in 1721. Alas, the second St. Philip’s burned to the ground in 1835—a distressingly common fate for so many old buildings in this area. Construction immediately began on a replacement, and it’s that building you see today. Heavily damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, a $4.5 million renovation kept the church usable. So, to recap: St. Philip’s was originally on the site of the present St. Michael’s. And while St. Philip’s is the oldest congregation in South Carolina, St. Michael’s has the oldest physical church building in the state. Are we clear?

  St. Philip’s Episcopal Church

  South Carolina’s great statesman John C. Calhoun—who ironically despised Charlestonians for what he saw as their loose morals—was originally buried across Church Street in the former “stranger’s churchyard,” or West Cemetery, after his death in 1850. (Charles Pinckney and Edward Rutledge are two other notable South Carolinians buried here.) But near the end of the Civil War, Calhoun’s body was moved to an unmarked grave closer to the sanctuary in an attempt to hide its location from Union troops, who it was feared would go out of their way to wreak vengeance on the tomb of one of slavery’s staunchest advocates and the man who invented the doctrine of nullification. In 1880, with Reconstruction in full swing, the state legislature directed and funded the building of the large memorial to Calhoun in the West Cemetery.

  French Huguenot Church

  One of the oldest congregations in town, the French Huguenot Church (44 Queen St., 843/722-4385, www.frenchhuguenotchurch.org, liturgy Sun. 10:30am) also has the distinction of being the only remaining independent Huguenot Church in the country. Founded around 1681 by French Calvinists, the church had about 450 congregants by 1700. While they were refugees from religious persecution, they weren’t destitute, as they had to pay for their passage to America.

  the French Huguenot Church

  As is the case with so many historic churches in the area, the building you see isn’t the original sanctuary. The first church was built on this site in 1687, and became known as the “Church of Tides” because at that time the Cooper River lapped at its property line. This sanctuary was deliberately destroyed as a firebreak during the great conflagration of 1796. The church was replaced in 1800, but that building was in turn demolished in favor of the picturesque, stucco-coated Gothic Revival sanctuary you see today, which was completed in 1845 and subsequently survived Union shelling and the 1886 earthquake.

  Does the church look kind of Dutch to you? There’s a good reason for that. In their diaspora, French Huguenots spent a lot of time in Holland and became influenced by the tidy sensibilities of the Dutch people.

  The history of th
e circa-1845 organ is interesting as well. A rare “tracker” organ, so named for its ultrafast linkage between the keys and the pipe valves, it was built by famed organ builder Henry Erben. After the fall of Charleston in 1865, Union troops had begun dismantling the instrument for shipment to New York when the church organist, T. P. O’Neale, successfully pleaded with them to let it stay.

  French Huguenots

  A visitor can’t spend a few hours in Charleston without coming across the many French-sounding names so prevalent in the region. Some are common surnames, such as Ravenel, Manigault (“MAN-i-go”), Gaillard, Laurens, or Huger (“huge-EE”). Some are street or place names, such as Mazyck or Legare (“Le-GREE”). Unlike the predominantly French Catholic presence in Louisiana and coastal Alabama, the Gallic influence in Charleston was strictly of the Calvinist Protestant variety. Known as Huguenots, these French immigrants—refugees from an increasingly intolerant Catholic regime in their mother country—were numerous enough in the settlement by the 1690s that they were granted full citizenship and property rights if they swore allegiance to the British crown.

  The Huguenots’ quick rise in Charleston was due to two factors. Unlike other colonies, Carolina never put much of a premium on religious conformity, a trait that exists to this day despite the area’s overall conservatism. And unlike many who fled European monarchies to come to the New World, the French Huguenots were far from poverty-stricken. Most had to buy their own journeys across the Atlantic and arrived already well educated and skilled in one or more useful trades. In Charleston’s early days, they were mostly farmers or tar burners (makers of tar and pitch for maritime use). In later times their pragmatism and work ethic would lead them to higher positions in local society, such as lawyers, judges, and politicians. One of the wealthiest Charlestonians of all, the merchant Gabriel Manigault, was by some accounts the richest person in the American colonies during the early 1700s. South Carolina’s most famous French Huguenot was Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox” of Revolutionary War fame. Born on the Santee River, Marion grew up in Georgetown and is now interred near Moncks Corner.

  During the 18th century a number of charitable aid organizations sprang up to serve various local groups, mostly along ethnoreligious lines. The wealthiest and most influential of them all was the South Carolina Society, founded in 1737 and first called “The Two Bit Club” because of the original weekly dues. The society still meets today at its building at 72 Meeting Street, designed in 1804 by none other than Manigault’s grandson, also named Gabriel, who was Charleston’s most celebrated amateur architect. Another aid organization, the Huguenot Society of Carolina (138 Logan St., 843/723-3235, www.huguenotsociety.org, Mon.-Fri. 9am-2pm), was established in 1885. Their library is a great research tool for anyone interested in French Protestant history and genealogy.

  Charleston’s French Huguenot Church was one of the earliest congregations in the city. Though many of the old ways have gone, the church still holds one liturgy a year (in April) in French.

  Sunday services are conducted in English now, but a single annual service in French is still celebrated in April. The unique Huguenot Cross of Languedoc, which you’ll occasionally see ornamenting the church, is essentially a Maltese Cross, its eight points representing the eight beatitudes. Between the four arms of the cross are four fleurs-de-lis, the age-old French symbol of purity.

  Dock Street Theatre

  Fresh from an extensive renovation, the Dock Street Theatre (135 Church St., 843/720-3968), right down the street from the Huguenot Church, is where any thespian or lover of the stage must pay homage to this incarnation of the first theater built in North America.

  Dock Street Theatre

  In a distressingly familiar Charleston story, the original 1736 Dock Street Theatre burned down. A second theater opened on the same site in 1754. That building was in turn demolished for a grander edifice in 1773, which, you guessed it, also burned down.

  The current building dates from 1809, when the Planter’s Hotel was built near the site of the original Dock Street Theatre. (So why is the theatre not actually on Dock Street? Because that street on the theatre’s north side was renamed Queen Street, the name it bears today.) To mark the theater’s centennial, the hotel added a stage facility in 1835, and it’s that building you see now. For the theater’s second centennial, the Works Progress Administration completely refurbished Dock Street back into a working theater in time to distract Charlestonians from the pains of the Great Depression.

  In addition to a very active and well-regarded annual season from the resident Charleston Stage Company, the 464-seat venue has hosted umpteen events of the Spoleto Festival over the past three decades and since its renovation continues to do so.

  Old Powder Magazine

  The Old Powder Magazine (79 Cumberland St., 843/722-9350, www.powdermag.org, Mon.-Sat. 10am-4pm, Sun. 1pm-4pm, $5 adults, $2 children) may be small, but the building is quite historically significant. The 1713 edifice is the oldest public building in South Carolina and also the only one remaining from the days of the Lords Proprietors. As the name indicates, this was where the city’s gunpowder was stored during the Revolution. The magazine is designed to implode rather than explode in the event of a direct hit.

  This is another labor of love of the Historic Charleston Foundation, which has leased the building—which from a distance looks curiously like an ancient Byzantine church—from The Colonial Dames since 1993. It was opened to the public as an attraction in 1997. Now directly across the street from a huge parking garage, the site has continuing funding issues, so occasionally the hours for tours can be erratic.

  Inside, you’ll see displays, a section of the original brick, and an exposed earthquake rod. Right next door is the privately owned, circa-1709 Trott’s Cottage, the first brick dwelling in Charleston.

  Old Slave Mart Museum

  Slave auctions became big business in the South after 1808, when the United States banned the importation of slaves, thus increasing both price and demand. The auctions generally took place in public buildings where everyone could watch the wrenching spectacle. In the 1850s, public auctions in Charleston were put to a stop when city leaders discovered that visitors from European nations—all of which had banned slavery years before—were horrified at the practice. The slave trade was moved indoors to “marts” near the waterfront where sales could be conducted out of the public eye.

  The last remaining such structure is the Old Slave Mart Museum (6 Chalmers St., 843/958-6467, www.charlestoncity.info, Mon.-Sat. 9am-5pm, $7 adults, $5 children, free under age 6). Built in 1859, and originally known as Ryan’s Mart after the builder, it was only in service a short time before the outbreak of the Civil War. The last auction was held in November 1863. After the war, the Slave Mart became a tenement, and then in 1938 an African American history museum. The city of Charleston acquired the building in the 1980s and reopened it as a museum in late 2007.

  There are two main areas: the orientation area, where visitors learn about the transatlantic slave trade and the architectural history of the building itself; and the main exhibit area, where visitors can see documents, tools, and displays re-creating what happened inside during this sordid chapter in local history and celebrating the resilience of the area’s African American population.

  NORTH OF BROAD

  This tourist-heavy part of town is sometimes called the Market Area because of its proximity to the City Market. We’ll start on the neighborhood’s east side at the border of the French Quarter on Meeting Street and work our way west and north toward Francis Marion Square.

  Circular Congregational Church

  The historic Circular Congregational Church (150 Meeting St., 843/577-6400, www.circularchurch.org, services fall-spring Sun. 11am, summer Sun. 10:15am, tours Mon.-Fri. 10:30am) has one of the most interesting pedigrees of any house of worship in Charleston, which is saying a lot. Services were originally held on the site of the “White Meeting House,” for which Meeting Street is named; th
ey were moved here beginning in 1681 and catered to a polyglot mix of Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Huguenots. For that reason it was often called the Church of Dissenters (Dissenter being the common term at the time for anyone not an Anglican). As with many structures in town, the 1886 earthquake necessitated a rebuild, and the current edifice dates from 1891.

  the Circular Congregational Church

  Ironically, in this municipality called “the Holy City” for its many high spires, the Circular Church has no steeple, and instead stays low to the ground in an almost medieval fashion. Look for the adjacent meeting house; a green-friendly addition houses the congregation’s Christian outreach, has geothermal heating and cooling, and boasts Charleston’s only vegetative roof.

  Gibbes Museum of Art

  The Gibbes Museum of Art (135 Meeting St., 843/722-2706, www.gibbesmuseum.org, Tues.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Sun. 1pm-5pm, $9 adults, $7 students, $5 ages 6-12, free under age 6) is one of those rare Southern museums that manages a good blend of the modern and the traditional, the local and the international.

  Begun in 1905 as the Gibbes Art Gallery—the final wish of James Shoolbred Gibbes, who willed $100,000 for its construction—the complex has grown through the years in size and influence. The key addition to the original beaux arts building came in 1978 with the construction of the modern wing in the rear, which effectively doubled the museum’s display space. Shortly thereafter the permanent collection and temporary exhibit space was also expanded. Serendipitously, these renovations enabled the Gibbes to become the key visual arts venue for the Spoleto Festival, begun about the same time.