The only plan for today is to go to the Edmondston-Alston house. Robyn was still holding out hope that a plantation could still be visited, but I don't think it is in the cards. We finally got up and moving and made our way back down to East Bay Street where the house is located. It was supposed to rain today so we had a couple of umbrellas with us. When we got to the Edmondston-Alston house and paid for the tour we found out that photos could only be taken of the exterior or from the porches which immediately disappointed Robyn. This house was built in 1825 by a shipping merchant (but not a slave trader) Charles Edmondston. In 1837 there was a financial panic and Edmondston lost a good deal of his fortune, so to save money he downsized to a smaller house in Charleston and sold it to a wealthy plantation owner Charles Alston. It was built in the Federal style (see a pattern here?) but when Alston bought the house he did a complete makeover to make it even grander and this is what the house looks like today. The house has stayed in the same family and the current owners live on the third floor. The house has a commanding view of the Charleston harbor including Fort Sumter, so on April 12, 1861 southern General P.G.T Beauregard watched the bombardment of the fort from the second floor balcony. There was a copy of the South Carolina secession document signed by many of the important land owners and politicians. Charles Alston did not sign it because he believed in the Union; however, once the Confederacy was formed he supported the South. Alston was a smart enough businessman that he kept money in northern and overseas banks so at the end of the war he had enough cash to pay the back taxes on his properties to get a Presidential edict granting his property back to him. It also helped that he never signed the secession document. Anyway I now put historic homes into the same category as cathedrals--once you have seen one, you have seen them all, and unless something really historically significant happened at the house,usually not worth seeing more than one.




After finishing our tour it was decided we should go tour the Provost Building which was the center of the Charleston government and for a while the South Carolina government. The big draw for Melanie and Debby was that there was a Dungeon in the basement. As we were walking to the Provost building we passed a series of old houses called Rainbow Row because of their bright colors.



The Provost building was constructed on the half-moon battery of the old defensive wall, which meant that it was constructed where the water came up to the city. Since then the city has filled in enough of the bay to extend two more blocks into the bay, and this is an area that floods easily especially during king tides which are extremely high high-tides. When Charleston was the capital of South Carolina this served as the State House. The Declaration of Independence was read to the people of South Carolina from the steps of the Provost Building. The Dungeon was actually built as a store room, and it only served as a dungeon when the British captured Charleston in 1780. Political prisoners, including women and children, were held there in very deplorable conditions. The plaza next to the Provost was where slave auctions were held, but if the weather was bad the auctions would be held in the building. During excavations of the dungeon the original half-moon battery wall was discovered. Water seeps up from the bay during high-tide up against the wall; that is how close the bay is to trying to reclaim its land.




When we were ready to leave the Provost it had started to rain, and not just any rain--it was a regular monsoon. I of course had to go get the car in the rain so I got good and wet, at least my feet did. The girls also got soaked just coming out to the car (only 2 umbrellas for 3 people). It continued raining for the rest of the day, which kind of put a damper on things. Melanie found a wine & beer Cat Café and insisted on going. The idea of a cat café is you pay a set fee to spend an hour with several cats that are up for adoption. When we got there I was the only male among a bunch of women and cats. Melanie and Robyn enjoyed it and I sat there drinking wine. I do love cats but when we left I felt like I needed to go to a bar and get in a fight to get back some of manhood.



That was pretty much it for the day. We had reservations at a seafood restaurant called Hank's and with the rain it was a challenge to get there, but we made it and the food was very good. Tomorrow we head to Hilton Head for one day so Melanie can celebrate her birthday at the beach.