Today we walked Charleston’s ‘Museum Mile’. This is pretty much a mile(ish) long strip down Meeting Street with several significant museums and historical sites.
However, before we started the walk we visited the Aiken-Rhett house. This house is a preserved artifact of the Civil War, and was one of the few not to get completely destroyed by Union bombardment. The self-guided tour took us through the Slave’s quarters, stables, living dining and bedrooms, and the art gallery collected by the family. The best part is that the whole house is just like it used to be. Pretty Cool!
The next stop was the Charleston Museum. I’d already been a couple years before, but Mom and Greta had tons of fun going through the exhibits. By far their favorite one was the wedding dress exhibit, which had a try-on section of era-correct clothing. They loved it!
We finally embarked on the hike down Museum Mile. At first, it looked much like a normal city street, until we got down to the Battery. The Battery is the historically the rich neighborhood in downtown Charleston near where Fort Sumter was bombarded, which is still lived in. It wouldn't be surprising to see a Lamborghini Murcielago rolling down the street at any given moment. You couldn’t walk five feet without seeing a Porsche. I spent plenty of time salivating!
Before we toured any of these Über houses, we first visited the Provost Dungeon. Originally a bastion on the Charleston seawall, it was converted into a customs house in the late 18th century. During the revolutionary war, it was also used as a prisoners of war dungeon. The Americans also used it as an ammunitions magazine; they hid their powder so well that during Charleston's many years of British occupation, it was never found.
The next stop our first Battery house. Home of the famous ‘Floating Stairway’ (To my disappointment, it didn’t actually float) we took a tour of the Russell house. This house was one of the few that was *not* actually funded by slave labor and the exploitation of Africans, as Nathaniel Russell made his fortune by Import/Export trading.
The reason the famous 'Floating Stairway' appears to float is because it has no central support and it only touches the three floor landings. At first, it does like it's floating.
Our last visit was to the Edmonston-Alston house. This was the first house built in the Battery, and evolved through the years and its owners. *Witness to many dramatic events in Charleston’s history, the Edmondston-Alston House is a classic example of the city’s changing and sophisticated taste in architecture and decorative arts.The Edmondston-Alston House is a repository of family treasures, including Alston family silver, furniture, books and paintings that remain in place much as they have been for over a century and a half.
*Source: Middleton Place/Edmonston-Alston website
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