Charleston Perspective Walking Tour

We will meet on the steps of the US Custom House located at 200 East Bay Street.

We will walk down Philadelphia Alley and discuss the brick making industry and the enslaved brick masons who built the centuries old structures of Charleston.

We will discuss the religious freedom in Charleston from it's founding in 1670. We will also discuss the history of the founders and the structure.

We will discuss the French Huguenot history in Charleston beginning in 1685, and the history and architecture of the structure.

We will discuss the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Rice Culture, the Gullah/Geechee culture and the African American history in Charleston, standing outside the structure on Chalmers Street.

The People's Building was built in 1911 as a business office to try and rebuild the failing economy in Charleston from the time of the Civil War. It sparked a Preservation Movement to preserve and restore the centuries old structures in Charleston, which is still active today. We will stand outside the building while we talk about the Preservation Movement history.

Oak Steakhouse is a restaurant housed in a historic structure on Broad Street with exposed brick walls and original heart pine flooring. We will pass through Four Post Alley on the west side of the building.

We will see iconic Rainbow Row and discuss the history of the buildings, the bustling waterfront port and the role of Charleston in the Revolutionary War.

Charleston was a walled city from 1680-1725. Recent archaeology has uncovered a massive foundation that still exists beneath the surface of modern day Charleston.

We will see the fortifications surrounding Charleston Harbor including Fort Sumter, Castle Pinckney, Fort Johnson, Fort Moultrie, Fort Wagner, High Battery, Low Battery. We will discuss Charleston during the Civil War.

We will pass through Stolls Alley and discuss the role of the Freed men and women in early Charleston history.

First Baptist Church is the Mother Church of the Southern Baptists, founded in 1685. The structure there today was built in 1822 by Robert Mills, first native-born American Architect. He was the architect for the Washington Monument in DC, the Fireproof Building in Charleston, and many other monuments and courthouses up and down the eastern seaboard.

The Heyward Washington House is an impressive pre-Revolutionary War museum house. Built in 1771 by Thomas Heyward, signer of the Declaration of Independence. It is flanked by two low rent tenement buildings dating from 1750s and 1780s. The 1780s structure is the setting for the book "Porgy" written by Dubose Heyward in 1925. Gershwin came to Charleston in 1935 and the opera "Porgy and Bess" was created from the book.

We will end the tour in the courtyard of 86 Church Street.