Architecture: Charleston Preserved
When the Civil War ended in 1865, Charleston was left battered and bruised—both physically and economically. Because locals had little money for building new homes and businesses in the coming decades, they made do with those they had, effectively saving from destruction the grand structures seen today. As development in the city began to pick up in the early 1900s, many of these historic buildings could have been lost were it not for the spirit of community activism that sprang into being in the 1920s.
According to Jonathan Poston, author of Buildings of Charleston, the preservation movement took off when an Esso gas station was slated to take the place of the Joseph Manigault House. Irate citizens formed the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings (the first such group in the nation), whose efforts managed to save what is now a vastly popular house museum. By 1931, Charleston's City Council had created the Board of Architectural Review and placed a designated historic district under its protection as a means of controlling unrestrained development—two more national firsts. The Historic Charleston Foundation was established in 1947, and preservation is now second nature (by law).
As you explore, look for Charleston single houses: one room wide, they were built with the narrow end street-side with multistory Southern porches (called piazzas) to catch prevailing breezes. Wide-open windows allow the cool air that drifts across these shaded porches to enter the homes.
It's important to note that many of these preserved buildings were once working plantations and homes that were maintained entirely by enslaved people who were forced to live and work on them. These early preservation attempts were led entirely by white people, many of whom had deep connections to the Confederacy. Buildings with history and relevance to African American communities rarely got the same treatment. Take the original building of the Emanuel African Methodist Espiscopal (AME) Church, founded in 1816. One of its early leaders was Denmark Vessey, a formely enslaved man and carpenter who planned to liberate his still enslaved wife and children after failing to "purchase" their freedom; authorties learned of his plan, hanged him, and burned down the church (the current Mother Emanual AME church was built in the same spot).
