A new idea.

This morning I set out to walk Church Street, East Battery, East Bay, and Broad Street in downtown Charleston to take pictures of some houses I am researching. It was a beautiful day and I found myself taking as many pictures on my phone as I did on the camera for work. Then I had an idea. To both encourage myself to take more pictures and to share some of my pictures with others, I am going to post a picture a day. This may quickly actually turn into a picture every other day, or a picture a week, but it is a good goal to have. I also may not actually end up taking a new picture every day but I days like today will provide plenty of options for the future. It would have been nice if I had thought of this when I first came to Charleston in September or at least when I returned in January, but there's nothing wrong with starting on February 24th. Enjoy.

Here we have half of the William Roper House (left) and half of the house beside it.* Both of these houses survived the Civil War, and records suggest that the people of Charleston gathered on the rooftops and piazzas (what Charleston calls porches) of these homes to view the bombing of Fort Sumter. The green shutters and ironwork of the Roper House captured my interest as soon as I came to Charleston. The house stands out against the stuccoed buildings of the historic district. I also love the story of the house. Looking at it one would never know, but resting among the roof beams is a 500 pound cannon fragment, an artifact of the Civil War. The cannon is so large that is has never been removed. 

*The house to the right is the William Ravenel House. Ravenel gained his pre-Civil War wealth as a shipping merchant and a planter. The house was damaged during the earthquake of 1886, and some of the destroyed columns were never replaced.