Charleston, South Carolina: The South's Most Beautiful City

Charleston, South Carolina is widely regarded as the most beautiful city in the American South, and one of the most exquisitely preserved historic cities in the United States. Founded in 1670 as Charles Town in honour of King Charles II, it was one of the earliest colonial cities in British North America, and by the mid-eighteenth century it was the wealthiest and most culturally sophisticated city south of Philadelphia. Its architecture — a blend of Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate styles — survived the Civil War largely intact, and its historic core is today one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the country.

A Walk Through History

The most iconic image of Charleston is **Rainbow Row**, a series of thirteen Georgian row houses on East Bay Street, painted in pastel colours. Dating to the 1740s, these are the longest cluster of Georgian row houses in the United States. They were restored in the 1930s and 1940s by Susan Pringle Frost, a pioneering preservationist who also founded the Preservation Society of Charleston, the oldest community-based preservation organisation in America.

The **Battery** and **White Point Garden** form the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula, where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet. The Battery is lined with grand antebellum mansions, including the Edmondston-Alston House (built 1825), the Nathaniel Russell House (built 1808, one of America's finest Federal-style houses), and the Calhoun Mansion (built 1876, the largest private residence in Charleston at 24,000 square feet). The waterfront promenade offers views of Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired on April 12, 1861.

The Gardens of the Ashley River

Charleston's plantation gardens are among the most extraordinary landscape treasures in America. **Magnolia Plantation and Gardens**, founded in 1686 by the Drayton family, is the oldest public gardens in America, opened to visitors since 1870. The gardens were redesigned in the 1840s by the Reverend John Grimke Drayton, who created a romantic English-style landscape garden among the existing rice fields, filling it with native and exotic plants. Magnolia's extensive collection of camellias, azaleas, and magnolias makes it spectacular in the spring bloom.

**Middleton Place**, established in 1741 by Henry Middleton, president of the First Continental Congress, contains America's oldest landscaped gardens. The formal terraced gardens, designed in the classical French style, descend through four levels to the Ashley River. The resident camellias at Middleton Place include one planted in 1786 by André Michaux, the French botanist — the oldest camellia in America.

The Dining Renaissance

Charleston's culinary scene has been transformed in the past two decades, earning the city recognition as one of the great food destinations of the American South. **FIG** (Food Is Good), opened in 2003 by chef Mike Lata, was at the forefront of the farm-to-table movement in Charleston and remains one of the city's most celebrated restaurants. **Husk**, opened in 2010 by chef Sean Brock, was named Best New Restaurant in America by Bon Appetit magazine and became the emblem of modern Southern cooking. Brock's philosophy — sourcing only ingredients from below the Mason-Dixon line — redefined what Southern food could be.

**The Grocery**, **The Ordinary** (chef Mike Lata's seafood hall), **Zero Restaurant** (at Zero George, chef Vinson Petrillo), and **Charleston Grill** (at Charleston Place hotel, chef Michelle Weaver) round out a dining scene that rivals any city in the South. The city's proximity to the Atlantic and the Lowcountry — the coastal wetland region of South Carolina — provides an abundance of shrimp, oysters, crab, and the famous Carolina Gold Rice, the historic rice variety revived by Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills.

The Hotels

**Charleston Place**, a Belmond hotel, is the grand hotel of the city, situated at the intersection of Meeting and Market streets in the heart of the historic district. The hotel's dining venue, the Charleston Grill, is under the direction of jazz vocalist Band the grill's long-time sommelier, Rick Brantley.

**The Dewberry** opened in 2016 in the former L. Mendel Rivers Federal Building, a mid-century modern building transformed into a 155-room hotel with a refined, mid-century aesthetic. Its brasserie, Henrietta's, is one of the most popular dining rooms in the city.

**The Spectator Hotel** is a boutique property with a 1920s-inspired aesthetic, offering personalized butler service. **Planters Inn**, situated on the City Market, is one of the most charming small hotels in the historic district.

Fort Sumter and the Civil War

No visit to Charleston is complete without a visit to **Fort Sumter**, the sea fort in Charleston Harbor where the American Civil War began. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces under General P. G. T. Beauregard opened fire on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter, beginning the bloodiest conflict in American history. The fort is now a National Monument, accessible by ferry from Liberty Square and Patriots Point.

Reference Links:

- Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau: charlestoncvb.com

- Magnolia Plantation and Gardens: magnoliaplantation.com

- Middleton Place: middletonplace.org

- Fort Sumter National Monument: nps.gov/fosu

- Preservation Society of Charleston: preservationsociety.org

- FIG Restaurant: charlestonfig.com

- The Dewberry: thedewberrycharleston.com

- Anson Mills (Carolina Gold Rice): ansonmills.com