Peace and War – The Angel Oak and Fort Sumter, Charleston SC [March 4, 2016]

The day started with a trip to see what is purported to be the largest Live Oak tree east of the Mississippi, the Angel Oak on John’s Island, Charleston County.  To get to the tree, you turn just after a church and drive along a gravel road and eventually through a gate into a gravel parking lot.  There is nothing fancy or contrived about this park.  It is just a beautiful tree, surrounded by signs telling you not to climb on it, and a small house that serves as a gift shop.  The tree is enormous, peaceful and beautiful.  It’s thick, old branches drape gracefully toward the ground and eventually run parallel to it.  Sometimes there are wooden blocks supporting the branches. 

Rumor has it that the tree is 1,500 years old.  We’ve seen much smaller Live Oak trees that are said to be 700 and 900 years old.  However, the sign on the tree property says that the tree is 300-400 years old and that these trees only live to be 500-700 years old.  This information casts a doubt on the ages of the other trees we had seen.  Hmmmm.  None of this takes away from how huge this tree is – 65 feet tall, 25.5 foot circumference with an area of shade 17,000 square feet.  The largest limb is 39 feet long and 11 feet around.  Wow!

There is an atmosphere of quiet and peace around the tree.  People speak in hushed voices, and the sandy soil under foot muffles their footsteps.  You feel like breathing deeply and standing in awe of such a lovely sight.  While the tree looks a bit like an angel spreading its wings, the Angel Oak gets its name from the Angel family who once owned the property.

From the Angel Oak we drove into Charleston to visit Fort Sumter.  It was a windy and cool ferry trip through Charleston Harbor to the island fort.  After you arrive, you have about an hour there before you sail back to the city.  There is a great exhibit area inside the fort that we didn’t see until the last minute.  We wished that we had spent less time clamoring around the ramparts of the fort and had left more time to spend in the exhibits.

The fort has a long and varied history, but is most noted for being the location of the first shot fired in the American Civil War.  The Confederacy fired on the fort that wasn’t finished construction, many of whose cannons were still not assembled, and that was woefully understaffed.  After 36 hours of bombardment, the Federal troops relinquished the fort.  Later in the war, Federal forces bombarded the fort, reducing the top 2 of 3 tiers of the outer wall to rubble.  Ironically, all this fallen brick was used to reinforce the remaining walls making them stronger.  After the American Civil War, the fort was fixed up to defend Charleston during the Spanish-American War and then was used continuously through WWII.  Such a violent history.

 

Lots of History and Lots of Walking in Downtown Charleston SC [March 3, 2016]

Today was devoted to downtown Charleston.  Lots-a walking - my fitbit recorded 15,000+ steps.

We are staying in the James Island County Park Campground just across the Ashley River from downtown Charleston.  For $10/person they will shuttle you over to the Visitors Center.  From there you can catch a free trolley around town, or set off on foot.  We initially took the trolley south down King Street, but figured out pretty quickly that we walk faster and if we were walking we wouldn’t miss the wonderful sights along the way.

Our first destination was Legare Street, south of Broad, in the most historic (read expensive), and lovingly restored parts of town.  We were in search of “single houses” and wrought iron gates.  Charleston has a unique architectural style called the single house.  The single house is only one room wide as it faces the street.  From the street you see 2 windows upstairs, and 2 windows and a door downstairs.  The door looks like your and my front door, but actually leads on to an open air porch that extends the length of the house.  The rest of the rooms open up on to the porch all the way back to the rear of the house.  The same with upstairs. (There are pictures of what this looks like at the end of this post!)

The porches face gardens and the gardens are secured from the street by fences and gates.  Oftentimes the gates are made of wrought iron.  Long ago I read that the wrought iron work was done by free men of color.  Each family had their unique design and every gate made by that family followed that design.  The skill and the design were passed from generation to generation.  That said, in two trips to Charleston spent walking up and down these streets looking at wrought iron work, I’ve never seen a duplicate gate.  So maybe the story isn’t true, but it is a great story.

We followed Legare down to the Battery and walked along the sea wall admiring the view, the cannons in the park and the enormous houses along the Battery.  We learned later that when the settlers moved over from Charles Town Landing around 1680, this part of the peninsula was all wetland.  It wasn’t filled in and secured with a sea wall until the 1750's. The stately mansions that grace the Battery were built after that.

We walked back up East Bay Street, and along the City Market.  We had a seafood lunch at Hyman’s on Meeting Street and then headed south again.  This time we followed a walking tour that we had ripped out of the AAA South Carolina Tour Book.  We made an interesting stop at the Powder Magazine (79 Cumberland St.)  To finish off the day, we took a tour of the Heyward-Washington House at 87 Church St.  The house was built in 1772 for Thomas Heyward, who later went on to sign the Declaration of Independence.  In 1791 George Washington was a guest there, hence the name of the house.  The tour was interesting with a heavy emphasis on antique furniture that had been built in Charleston.  Of special interest to Dana was that the house was briefly the home of the Grimke family (the daughters were famous abolitionists whose story was told in Invention of Wings), though they moved into a different house when Sarah was 11, before Angelina was born.

The Battery

Following our tour, we hoofed it back to Lagare to walk back to where we would catch our shuttle home.  We liked walking along less traveled streets.  We passed through the College of Charleston campus.  As we got near the Visitors Center, we stopped at Republic Ice Cream for some extremely tasty, reasonably priced, South Carolina produced ice cream.  Why not, we walked 15,000+ steps!

Hope you enjoy the photos!  

Famous Battery Seawall

Mansion at the End of the Battery

Another Battery Mansion

Thought This House Was Pretty

Heyward-Washington House

These Cobblestones Came from England as Ballast in Ships

A Row of Single Houses

Close Up of Single House Door

Good View of a Single House Porches

Historic Charles Towne Landing and Fascinating Magnolia Plantation – Charleston SC Day 1 [March 2, 2016]

Our first day in Charleston was scenic and fascinating.  We started where it all began – the original spot on the west bank of the Ashley River (across from the current city) where the original settlers landed and set up a fortified town in 1670.  We learned that the settlers came from England and Barbados with the intention of replicating the plantation system used in Barbados in Carolina.  The system depended on the abundance of labor using both enslaved African people and indentured servants from England.   When the town moved across the river to the current location of Charleston, the area became a plantation.  It is now a State Park with a  few reconstructed features, an archaeological dig, and a replica of a trading ship.  It was very interesting.  

From there we traveled up the Ashley River Rd (Route 61) to the Magnolia Plantation where beautiful gardens have been maintained for 331 years.  The plantation set along the edge of the river has lovely paths through blooming azaleas, daffodils, camellias, and other plants.  Some of the areas are very wooded and others are more cultivated.  We took the “Nature Tram” which drives you along dikes from the former rice plantation.  We saw alligators, eagles, and countless water fowl and wading birds.  We toured the mansion which was the third built in that location.  The most exciting part of our time was at the Audubon Swamp Garden.  We walked along boardwalks and dikes around swamps full of tupelo trees, and bald cypress.  We saw a rookerie of egret and heron nests.  We watched a Great Blue Heron couple build a nest together.  It was fabulous!