This tour is an exploration of Charleston that highlights the women and men who helped found Charleston and the United States.
Did you know, without the pirates and patriots of Charleston, the United States may not exist today?
We start our experience in front of the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, one of Charleston’s oldest and most historical buildings. Learn about George Washington’s visit in 1791, and the dungeon’s prisoners who met their fate.
Next, we venture down East Bay Street, passing Rainbow Row. Behold gorgeous mansions, and witness breathtaking views of the Charleston Harbor and White Point Garden. Walk in the footsteps of pirates and their captors.
Next, we turn inward and walk through Charleston’s South of Broad neighborhood. Learn about the man George Washington and Thomas Jefferson said was the true father of America.
Last, we venture back to our starting point, passing by the Four Corners of the Law and the shops and residences on Broad Street.
Built in 1771 as a commercial exchange and custom house, the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon has been a Charleston landmark for nearly 250 years. Today, it is a non-profit historic site that focuses on the American Revolution and colonial Charleston.
Rainbow Row is the name for a series of thirteen colorful historic houses in Charleston, South Carolina. It represents the longest cluster of Georgian row houses in the United States. The houses are located north of Tradd St. and south of Elliott St. on East Bay Street, that is, 79 to 107 East Bay Street. The name Rainbow Row was coined after the pastel colors they were painted as they were restored in the 1930s and 1940s.
The house is built on the foundation ruins of Fort Mechanic that was at this location in the later part of the eighteenth century. Shipping merchant Charles Edmondston, a Scottish immigrant from the Shetland Islands, had purchased the low sandy lot in 1817. The unstable soggy land was unfit for residential construction until a sea wall was built. Charleston city officials built one in 1820 and Edmondston then started the construction of the house. The antebellum modified Charleston single house (side-hall) was constructed between 1820 and 1828. Edmondston had built the house originally in the English Regency style architecture.
You will make your own way to the meeting points