Charms of Charleston

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CHARLESTON, SC -- Two mules pull our 16-passenger carriage along Horlbeck Alley onto King Street. "We are now at the highest ridge in Charleston," says our driver and guide. "It's 12 feet above sea level here."

So, that explains why this area of South Carolina is called the Low Country. You can learn some interesting facts by taking one of these tours. Stephen Reynolds, the young man conducting our Palmetto Carriage tour, has an undergraduate degree in history and 27 hours of postgraduate credits in Southern history. He clearly enjoys the subject.

As the sights roll slowly by us, he explains that King Charles II of England granted a large tract of land in the New World to a group of eight men as a reward for their loyalty to the crown during the interregnum of the Oliver Cromwell years.

They named it Carolina, honoring the king with the Latin-inspired term that references the two Charleses who preceded and followed Cromwell. They then named this city Charles Towne after Charles II; the name evolved into Charleston after the American Revolution.

Charleston is the oldest major English settlement south of Virginia, Mr. Reynolds tells us. Some of the buildings are about 300 years old, and the city played significant roles in the American Revolution and the Civil War.

"Know what they call that part of a house here in Charleston?" he asks, gesturing toward what some of us call a porch and others call a veranda. "It's a piazza," he tells us, "after the Italian word for an open gathering spot, often adorned with columns."

The facts and quirks of Charleston are very interesting to know. It is, we have concluded after two visits within a year, one of the very best U.S. cities as a travel destination.

Walk around the historic district here and delight in the architecture of the Colonial and antebellum eras; observe the cobblestone lanes and the gas lanterns on posts and along walls; admire the wrought-iron fences, gates and balconies; enjoy the lovely landscaping and take pleasure in the colors, and it is easy to understand why Charleston is ranked as one of the country's best-preserved cities. This came about partly by accident and equally by design.

From its early Colonial days until the Civil War, the great wealth generated from area plantations made Charleston by far the most prosperous area in the American Colonies. The rich poured much of their money into building grand houses. After the Civil War, however, no one could afford to tear down the old houses or build new ones. This is the same reason that Natchez, Miss., which ranked high in per-capita millionaires before the war and fell on hard times after the bloody conflict, is celebrated for its historic preservation.

That's the accidental part. The design part came about in the early 1920s, when Charleston was preparing to demolish many structures in what is now the historic sector. The city was planning to install wider roads to accommodate the growing popularity of the automobile. This touched off a protracted resistance campaign, led by the city's aristocracy, which culminated in Charleston's becoming the first American city to adopt a zoning ordinance preserving and protecting historic structures.