During the week while our friends worked and travelled we adventured around Charleston. We started by heading to downtown Charleston to enjoy the area and take a wonderful walk and visit historic houses.

We visited the Aiken-Rhett House Museum first. The tour starts outside with two buildings including the kitchen, stables, washroom, and workrooms with enslaved quarters on the second floor where an entire enslaved family lived in a single room with minimal light. The high walls surrounding the back yard are to prevent escape. There was an intricate call system from these areas to the house interior. This starkly contrasts with the grandeur of the house even given that it is a preserved-as-found preservation approach and is not restored. The art gallery is the most luxurious room and showcases art brought from Europe and a grand portrait that hung in the parlor.

We then walked to the Nathaniel Russell House Museum which is fully restored and gorgeous. This house highlights the wealth of the merchant class as well as the enslaved men and women that enabled this lavish lifestyle. The “flying” spiral staircase is an engineering marvel and freestanding. The dining room is on the first floor and guests would be entertained on the second floor in the rectangle room or oval room which was primarily the ladies retiring room and music room. The property also had a beautiful garden which was starting to bloom while we visited.

Thanks for making it this far! As a little dessert… here’s some more pineapple!