Carriage Ride Through Charleston

Sat. 6/28/08, we went on a carriage ride through a downtown section of Charleston to learn some history of the city. Our horse's name was Dick and the driver said he had two speeds--slow and asleep. He works 2 to 3 days per week for about 4 weeks and then takes vacation for about 65 days before he returns to work again. What a life! Laurie would love that kind of job!

This is a flowering myrtle bush, but everyone calls them trees because that's what they look like. They flower from June until Sept. or Oct. depending on when the weather turns cold. They line a lot of the streets where the homes are.

The streets are narrow making it difficult for the cars to pass the carriages. Some of the streets downtown are still made of bricks and if they need replacing they are replaced with bricks. The law states that anything 75 years or older must be replaced to it's original state. So if your home burns and all you have left is a window, door and brick chimney, you must rebuild the home exactly as it was using the 3 remaining items. The inside can be any way you like, but the outside must be as the law states--original look.

This home is east of Broadway Street and worth about 3 million dollars.

These homes are west of Broadway Street and run around 5 to 9 hundred thousand. They are only one room wide so they can open their windows and have the ocean breeze cool their houses, much more effective if they only have to cool one room.

There is at least one church and sometimes more on each street.

This is the old city jail and housed about 145 inmates. It didn't matter how long they were sentenced for because conditions were so bad that they were usually dead within 4 to 6 months. The jail had no electricity, plumbing or heating. Apparently the stench on the outside kept any would-be intruders far away.