CharlestonhomesBrian

Look up at this one, the second-floor porch juts right out over the entry, roof floating on slim columns. South of Broad builders stacked piazzas to catch the breeze on every floor. Little Downtown Charleston details like this are why I never get tired of walking these streets.

See those little scrolled brackets stacked under the bay window? Somebody painted every one of them rose-pink instead of hiding them. That’s the kind of thing you only catch on foot down here in Downtown Charleston. Slow down next time, these blocks reward it.

Buyers ask me this all the time. Can you really get around Downtown Charleston in a golf cart? You can. Street-legal with registration, and it’s half the fun of living on the Peninsula. Spotted this one outside 167 Raw on King Street.

Those carved window caps are pure Italianate a style Charleston builders leaned into in the mid-1800s. Harleston Village is stacked with these little clues to the city’s past. One of the best parts of being Downtown Charleston every day.

Spotted this on a morning walk. A cast iron horse head hitching post, back when you tied up your horse instead of parking your car. Downtown Charleston still has these tucked along the sidewalks. The history’s right there if you look.

Twin gas lanterns. A carved double door. That fan-shaped transom letting light into the hall. This is the Casimir Patrick House in Harleston Village, built around 1827 by a tanner. Walk Downtown Charleston slow and you start reading these doors like pages. Every one’s got a story.

One of those Downtown Charleston spots people drive past a hundred times and never really see. The palmettos frame it perfect, and the rose garden out front is worth a slow walk. Living down here, you find a new one every week.

Two stories of Ionic columns, built to catch the breeze off the harbor.

This is the South of Broad look in Downtown Charleston, grand, but never loud. The kind of porch you actually live on.

This is the kind of quiet morning that makes Downtown Charleston feel like a small town.

Brick, mud flats, and not a soul in a hurry.

South of Broad does this better than anywhere.