Charleston: The View from the Street

Charleston's architecture is enchanting! I took a morning stroll through the historic district's cobblestone streets with my camera so I could share some of my favorite details with all of you. Charleston is the closest thing we have in the States to a European city. It's a great pedestrian city that encourages visitors to walk the streets and discover its secrets.

I love this fountain and elegant courtyard!

Elaborate iron gates frame amazing little passageways and secret gardens.

A hallmark of Charleston architecture is the side porch. Almost every Charleston house has a porch and residents use the porch on a daily basis. It might just be the original outdoor room. Inside the original walled settlement of Charleston, the lots were narrow and long, requiring the house to be, well, narrow and long. The Single House, an architectural style that originated in Charleston, is a one room wide house featuring a porch running the length of the house. The porch faces either south or west to catch the prevailing breeze. The front door is often a facade that enters onto the porch and affords privacy. The real front door to the house opens up onto the porch itself.

 

Doorways are framed with flowering vines and accented with gas lanterns and garden gates.

Window boxes overflow with bloom and flourish in Charleston's humid climate.

A lot of the homes in the historic district have working shutters for privacy.

It's hard to see from the photo above but the homeowner lined their draperies so that the view from the street is equally as decorative as the view from the interior. The drapery panels above are lined with a large scale hand blocked linen featuring butterflies.

In the picture above you can see just a hint of the vibrant striped silk curtains that are made for the view from the street. I am assuming that the interior side has a different fabric. Two-sided curtains,what a luxury!

The cracks in the walls grow ferns.

This homeowner actually planted a variety of ferns in the ancient wall were the bricks and mortar had fallen away.

Charleston would be a great use for the new BM color app I have read about for your smart phone from Benjamin Moore Paints. It's called Color Capture. You take a picture of a color you like and it will match the color instantly to one of Benjamin Moore's 3300 paint colors. This door was such a unique and yummy color especially in combination with this crisp, clean white!

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