Charleston is known for art galleries. Many of the historical buildings in the French Quarter display beautiful works by the old windows.
Perfect frames, lighting provided free of charge.
Found on a walk around town.
Gallery, Charleston
Category Archives: Historical
Heron, Plantation Pond
With a few roads still closed I have walked through this side of the plantation much more often.
With few tourist some other locals are doing the same thing.
Just the two of us strolling along.
Doors Can Be Windows
It makes perfect sense, and was common.
Charleston is hot, old buildings get even hotter.
A walk through town shows you which direction the ocean breezes came from. A ‘door’ on either side of the house gave a cooling cross wind right down the middle.
I believe the ‘X’ covered earthquake bolts but I couldn’t get close enough to see for sure.
There’s Just Something About Cobblestone
From a walk around town.
And… technically the title is off. We have a section of the old local bricks here too. What’s missing is the ‘ballast rocks’ to complete local street design.
Ballast rocks came from the old sailing ships and were removed as cargo was loaded. Many were used for paving the streets. The old alleys still have them. Modern cars don’t do well rock streets though.
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
This small church, an Anglican chapel, is remote and the last standing piece of history in a town that hasn’t existed for several hundred years.
note; the chapel and cemetery are behind several brick walls as old as the chapel itself. Now it is monitored by CCTV, rimmed with barbed wire, all at the expense of the same family that helped build and maintain this for 300 years. The cemetery was again vandalized a day after these images were taken. One could point to the politics of our time, but this is an old very rural church. Nothing was gained by it, the few that visit here are photographers / historians. Troubling times.
In 1707 the town of Childsbury was organized here, the chapel and an Inn several years later. The Cooper River, which runs to Charleston, was the source of all transportation and this ‘T’ was as far as a small cargo boat could navigate.
The Rice Hope, Comingtee, Bonneau, and Strawberry Bluff plantations were the early settlers here. They were small at this time, not what the word plantation evokes.
The town did not survive due to a ferry, at Bonneau plantation, that made it faster for commerce than the river boats.
Click any image below to view a monochrome series of photographs.
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
The chapel survived the Civil War. Towns and nearby plantations were burned as General Sherman moved the Union Army north towards Charleston.
As the Union Army advanced Keating Ball of the Commingtee plantation removed all the French silver plates and chalices to a secret spot for safety. The silver was donated to the chapel by the Charleston Huguenot families from the towns French Quarter.
The silver was saved from the invading army, but hidden in a very private location…that Keating Ball never could find again.
For years treasure hunters combed the old ruins in these woods, finally in 1947 a family that managed what was left of Commingtee pulled up a ‘bag’ from an old barn floor. The silver is now in the Charleston Museum, except on the rare occasion a service is held in the chapel.
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
Strawberry, Chapel Of Ease 1725
I was to have an opportunity to photograph inside the chapel, the Covid-19 virus lock down cancelled it. With luck it will be rescheduled some time.
I had planned to include work from the plantation mentioned here. This would have become much too large.
If you search on the tag ‘historical’ on this site multiple articles in this area will be offered.
Rain At Strawberry
While pulling together some of the history of this ‘chapel of ease’ I wanted to try a darker sepia developed image. It was raining with a little fog which pointed towards a different style of photograph.
A Chapel Of Ease was a rural Anglican chapel, not church. This allowed services, baptisms, and burying the dead in places too far from a parish church.
Several of the oldest and furthest southern plantations (1600’s) were along the Cooper River here.
A Visit To The Ladies
In all his glory, well he thinks so based on the strut.
He actually was heading down a walk towards the hens.
The ladies were waiting… click to view the fair maidens.
Strawberry Chapel In The Rain
I don’t have a bucket list, but if I did it would include being inside Strawberry by myself. I really want to shoot here. Had a date too, the virus screwed that up.
I have published photographs before, and have some new ones to work on.
Before I publish anything I want to get the history here written down. This small ‘Chapel Of Ease’ has seen it all, and is still here.