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Tue. Nov 05, 2002

Praising Charleston: History and Architecture

Praising Charleston: History and Architecture – (12 photos) "Charleston’s Historic District encompasses a thousand acres where the lover of old buildings may wander in a waking dream of unmitigated delight." [Richard Tillinghast, The New York Times, May 23, 1993] While that quote begins to tell the tale quite well, it is perspective that makes it real. In Charleston, I walked down a street named for a reigning King who’d been dead nearly two hundred years by the time they built the oldest buildings that remain standing in Atlanta today.

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Last weekend during the Falcon’s game on TV, they showed a ”city scene” from Atlanta coming out of a commercial break, and the sportscaster said, "that’s Rhodes Hall, one of the last castles left on Peachtree, built way back in 1904." It’s only notable because it’s one of the few historical and architectural treasures we have left in Atlanta. But just days before I’d taken a walk out of our hotel down a Charleston Street stuffed overflowing with nothing but buildings older than that: "King Street was named for King George I of England. The road was previously called ’The Broad Path,’ the ’High Way,’ and also the ’Broad Road.’ Known for its business and retail establishments, the southern end is also one of the most charming residential streets in the city." I read the district we visited near Marion Square had recently become a focus of renovation efforts, and it showed.

Here’s one fine example: "363 King St. Architect W.B.W. Howe designed this Victorian building which was built in 1891-92 for Christopher P. Poppenheim, a hardware merchant. The front is of Philadelphia pressed brick trimmed with terra cotta. The building has been rebuilt behind the facade, as a shop and apartment complex." And this is just one randomly selected building in the first block of the randomly selected street we chose to walk down on our first morning. The pictures on this page weren’t cherry picked from hundreds shot at the best times of day at scouted locations, they are the result of two simple random walks, and whatever light was there when I saw the scene.

The city is filled with streets that are filled with historic structures. As I said, it’s also a matter of perspective, and I quickly began to view Charleston as the Anti-Atlanta. A carriage ride through the city with our friend Smokey confirmed it (well, it was the guide who confirmed it, but I don’t have a picture of her). It’s all about intent. Let’s look at the City of Atlanta’s goals and intent: "The Neighborhood Planning Unit System was established to provide an opportunity for citizens to participate actively in the Comprehensive Development Plan: the City’s vision for the next 5, 10, and 15 years." Ooooo, what visionaries! They’re looking a whole decade ahead!

In Atlanta, if something gets to be more than 20 or so years old, people begin to wonder when they’re going to tear it down and build a Starbucks or another MegaDepot. In Charleston, if something is more than 75 years old, be it building, tree, or bush, it cannot be removed by man. At least, not without conforming to the voluminous Zoning Ordinance administered by the Department of Design, Development and Preservation. New construction must meet strict requirements so that they ”fit in,” including severe height restrictions for a downtown area. It took Saks over a year to get their plans approved (plus royally piss off the locals, from what I gathered). Renovations of old buildings must pass muster as well. For example, if you want to paint the exterior of your home in the Historic District, you have a palette of 86 colors from which to choose, which apparently includes about forty variations that approach ”white.”

I can imagine how some homeowners (and developers) might find such severe zoning restrictions a Big Fat Pain, but I’ve seen how it can be when a city doesn’t give a flip about its history and structures. I live there. Charleston is different: "Treasuring the patrimony of their unique city, Charlestonians designated America’s first historic district and passed its first preservation zoning ordinance in 1931. Public and private efforts grew in succeeding years, but federal laws and state grants did not assist appreciably in the protection of most historic sites. Since 1940, Charleston has lost several hundred historic structures and nearly one-third of the antebellum plantation buildings in the surrounding the countryside."

Some say Charleston is "...a magnificent small city that manages to accommodate the 3 million people who visit every year—Charleston is the third most popular US destination if you believe Conde Nast Traveler magazine (Boston is fifth)—and its 95,000 residents who live here." Boston is the only other city I’ve visited that made me feel so immersed in history. And in addition to being the largest historic district in the US (second worldwide only to Vatican City), it’s the oldest: "They passed the first historic zoning ordinance in the United States in 1931, and development battles are fought foot by foot on the radio talk shows and the letters to the editor page of the Post & Courier. This is the Holy City to those who live here."

"As the city has prospered with tourism as its engine, the question has grown more immediate: How much is too much? [...] Charlestonians are right to worry. This is a city, after all, that has survived war, earthquakes, great fires, and deadly hurricanes, but tourism, Anne Taylor, Saks, and Banana Republic are another thing altogether. The horse-drawn carriages are big business at this point, but at what point do the urine-soaked streets just become overwhelming on a swelting day? [Note: the city only allows 20 carriages to be on the streets at any given time] Did Henry’s, a tradition to generations, really have to turn into a slick bar with loud Dixieland music to survive down there at the marketplace?"

I can honestly say that I saw very little I considered ”tourist tacky,” but it might have been hard to see the forest for the trees, because, well, we were tourists. Were there plenty of places to stop and have a beer and/or a meal whenever we desired? Sure. Did we have a wide choice of inns and hotels for our stay? Certainly. The things we saw as ”services,” a resident could rightly view as ”over-development.” But, coming from the Land of Big Signage, I also noticed the muting of the development. For example, we came and went from our hotel for over 36 hours before I realized there was a gas station and convenience store right across the street. Its ”signage” was one small entrance sign, maybe 3 feet tall and backed off the street. The building itself mostly faced away from the street, and was disguised by a heavy landscaping of trees and full bushes. A branding consultant would have burst a major vessel and fallen to the ground. I found it otherworldly, coming from a city where one convenience store creates an acre of asphalt, 10,000 watts of light, and commensurately sized signage. Plus the 90 foot billboard overhead they rent out.

But the collective beauty of the city is not due only to zoning and preservation efforts: "Charleston, up to the present time, has gained a certain individual beauty by a series of fortunate circumstances. Her periods of prosperity coincided with the best periods of American architecture, so, when she could afford to build, she built handsomely … Since the city must continue to grow, and since growth is change, Charleston is confronted with a more serious peril than any she has ever faced since her founding. In the past, no matter what calamities overtook her, her people were one in their ideals – the city must be saved. Man and nature alike have attempted to destroy her; it is a paradox that she who has survived adversity and calamity may be obliterated for all time by the hand of progress." [Elizabeth O’Neill Verner, 1883-1979] And after Ms. Verner passed away, Hurricane Hugo did literally billions of dollars of damage in the area in 1989 (I’ve read reports that nearly 80% of the buildings in the historic district were damaged in some way), and in its aftermath, spurred even greater efforts at restoration and preservation.

History creates more than one kind of wonderment. We are awed by the sight of such efforts at preserving the past, restored with caring attention and in great detail. But we also must be awed at the evil men did, in the name of country, religion, money, power, even piracy (Blackbeard once held the city hostage). "There is good and evil in that history, for the city is not innocent." [Robert Rosen] Indeed, for example, from the mid 1700’s on, 70% of the slaves who were brought to this country entered through Charleston.

Charleston is a city of many churches, all of them ancient both physically and even more so in the heritage of their congregation. One in particular stood out in both ways: "The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is a Gothic Revival style church built in 1891. Retaining its original alter, communion rail, pews, and light fixtures the church is one of only a few unaltered religious interiors in Charleston, especially from the Victorian period. The brick Gothic church with its tall steeple replaced an earlier 1872 church badly damaged by the 1886 earthquake. Today Emanuel is the oldest AME church in the South, and houses the oldest black congregation south of Baltimore, Maryland."

The above is the somewhat edited and sanitized version, and it hardly tells the tale. It’s a fascinating story, beginning in 1800 when a slave by the name of Denmark Vesey quite literally won the lottery, and used a portion of his winnings to buy his freedom. Once he’d gotten freedom for himself, he began fighting to get it for others: "Vesey pretty much went along without any followers until the city suppressed the huge African Church in 1820 for fear that it was getting too large. There were 3 major congregations involved. In those times slaves were permitted to attend church with free persons of color. That was the catalyst for an uprising organized and led by Denmark Vesey due to his courage, intelligence, freedom and influence as an African Methodist. Two comrades, Gullah Jack Pritchard, an African priest from Mozambique, and Monday Gell, both wrote two letters to the president of Santo Domingo seeking support for the anti-slavery uprising. Most of the plans were laid by the original Emanuel AME Church’s Hampstead congregation, where Denmark Vesey was an active member. Vesey proceeded to plan and communicate details among select church members and allies for what would have been in July 1822, the largest uprising against slavery in American history."

Their plans were found out, and put down harshly, with many of the plotters hanged. The history of Charleston is interwoven in that way, good and bad, as is always the case with history. In fact, the place we stayed, ”The Old Citadel,” was originally called the South Carolina State Arsenal: "The impetus for the Arsenal’s construction in the early 1830s was the 1822 slave revolt led by Denmark Vesey."

And so the circle of history goes around in Charleston.