9 Best Sights in Lower King and the Market, Charleston

Most of the buildings that make up this popular attraction were constructed between 1804 and the 1830s to serve as the city's meat, fish, and produce market. These days you'll find the open-air portion packed with stalls selling handmade jewelry, crafts, clothing, jams and jellies, and regional souvenirs. The market's indoor section is a beautiful backdrop for 20 stores and eateries. Local craftspeople are on hand, weaving sweetgrass baskets—a skill passed down through generations from their African ancestors. Each month except January and February, a night market on Friday and Saturday hosts local artists and food vendors.

Set on a man-made island in Charleston Harbor, this is the hallowed spot where the Civil War began. On April 12, 1861, the first shot of the war was fired at the fort from Fort Johnson on James Island. After a 34-hour battle, Union forces surrendered and the Confederacy managed to hold it, despite almost continual bombardment, from August 1863 to February 1865. When it was finally evacuated, the fort was a heap of rubble. Today, the National Park Service oversees it, and rangers give interpretive talks. To reach the fort, take a ferry with Fort Sumter Tours from downtown's Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center, which includes exhibitions on the Civil War era, or from Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant. There are as many as seven trips daily to the fort between mid-March and mid-August; fewer the rest of the year.

Housed in a beautiful beaux arts building with a soaring stained-glass cupola, this museum boasts a collection of 10,000 works, principally American with a local connection. An $11.5 million renovation expanded on-site studios, rotating exhibition spaces, and visiting artist programs. Permanent displays include a massive stick sculpture by Patrick Dougherty that visitors can step inside and life-size oil paintings from the 18th century. Different objects from the museum's permanent collection are on view in The Charleston Story, offering a nice summary of the region's history. Leave time to sit for a spell in the tranquil Lenhardt Garden behind the building.

Seasonal shows at this gallery known for progressive, contemporary art have included exhibitions by Shepard Fairey and Jasper Johns. Managed by the College of Charleston, the space is known for groundbreaking work, like the Saltworks show featuring Japanese-artist Motoi Yamamoto creating a massive salt sculpture over six weeks. Exhibitions are free and rotate every three months.

In a corridor that tells the gruesome history of American slavery at this strikingly beautiful yet stark new museum, an embroidered sack tells a bitter history. In 1921, Ruth Middleton sewed her grandmother's story into the canvas, recounting how she was sold to another family at age nine, with only the sack containing a tattered dress, a few pecans, and a braid of her mother's hair to take with her. It's easy to see why the museum includes private reflecting rooms with tissues on hand. The IAAM relates a factual, vivid account of the Middle Passage from Africa to Charleston, where 40% of enslaved Africans entered America. But while acknowledging the gruesome past and societal disadvantages African Americans still face, the majority of the museum celebrates their achievements, from politics to music to visual art, including a flexible gallery space. Permanent exhibits include a reconstructed Gullah-Geechee prayer house, an authentic bateau used for fishing and shrimping in the Lowcountry, and an elaborate Mardi Gras Indian costume from New Orleans. Underneath the new waterfront museum is the city's newest and most evocative public space, including a path through a garden of sweetgrass and the Tide Tribute, a sculptural diagram of the floor of a slave ship that fills and empties with the shifting tide in Charleston Harbor.

Part of the College of Charleston, this museum and archive was once a school for African Americans, training students for professional careers from approximately 1865 to 1954. The collections here focus on the civil rights movement, but also include artifacts from the era of chattel slavery, such as badges, manacles, and bills of sale, as well as other materials from throughout African American history.

A majestic Greek revival portico, Randolph Hall—designed in 1828 by Philadelphia architect William Strickland and built by the labor of enslaved people—presides over the college's central Cistern Yard. Draping oaks envelop the lush green quad, where graduation ceremonies and concerts, notably during Spoleto Festival USA, take place. Founded in 1770, this liberal arts college's historic campus served as the backdrop for films like Cold Mountain and The Notebook.

This gallery at the City Market showcases Gullah art, ranging from inexpensive prints to original works by artists like Jonathan Green. The vibrantly colored paintings of this highly successful South Carolina artist have helped popularize Gullah culture.

Get up close and personal with more than 5,000 creatures at this waterfront attraction, where exhibits invite you to journey through distinctive habitats. Step into the Mountain Forest and find water splashing over a rocky gorge as river otters play. Enter the open-air Saltmarsh Aviary to feed stingrays and view herons, diamondback terrapins, and puffer fish; gaze in awe at the two-story, 385,000-gallon Great Ocean Tank, home to sharks, jellyfish, and a loggerhead sea turtle. Kids love the touch tank, and the Sea Turtle Recovery exhibition makes the celebrated sea turtle rehabilitation hospital accessible to all visitors.