Everything, and everywhere, in Charleston is about history.
Most visitors walk around downtown, in the French Quarter, or the waterfront seawalls. However on the edge of town there are plantation homes, parks, and an area of marshes and land set aside 200 years ago for cemeteries.
Found On A Walk – Civil War Cemetery
The cemeteries are a history lesson of the US founding families, southern plantations, Civil Rights, the US Civil War, and famous architects. Oh, and photography.Ā
Above; Charleston is known wrought iron work. Well known ironsmiths work can be found outside homes downtown, through out Europe, and many Museums. This photograph is part of an old burial plot near the Cooper River salt marshes.
A few random church shots taken in passing the other day. These are all within one city block of each other. Some churches downtown share graveyards, burials separated by a wrought iron gate. All of them have been right there since the 1700ās.
Looking at South Carolina through the eyes of a northerner Iām pretty sure churches out number people.
ChurchChurchChurchChurch
Above is a ātwo-ferā. The spire is St. Ā Philipās, far right with the shorter spires is the French Huguenot Church.
I don’t even know what some of those things are! Many of these roles required him to be in different places, all the time. And… he had to ride a horse there.
There’s an alley off King Street, one of the busiest streets in Charleston, SC. Very easy to walk past, but if you find it, and the gate’s open be sure to walk through.
The ‘Gateway Walk’ originated as a path between Charleston’s Circular Church and the Unitarian Church. They started out as the same congregation, but they ran out of room. Over time the path disappeared under newer streets of the 1800’s.
It was later, in the 1900’s, the back end was reopened, and finally reconnected to King Street.
Gateway Walk
Private homes have entrances on the alley, but the gem is where the Unitarian graveyard begins in the path, as well as St. John’s Lutheran Church graveyard. St. John’s being a newer Church dating from approximately 1767.
Below are a few of the old stones found in the pathways of the Unitarian, the gate small opens to St. John’s.
This thing of a Church, next to a Church, connected to another, etc. is why Charleston is called the ‘Holy City’. Denominations from all over the world settled here, this was an ‘open city’, even when the Church Of England was the accepted church and we were a colony. There are over 400 Cathedrals and Churches in the city limits.
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Francis Prue (below) was buried here about the same time as the original wooden St. Philip’s Church was being built. That was 1769.Ā Her son, who died as an infant, is also buried in this spot. John Prue passed earlier and I didn’t see his grave. It was a few years before the Graveyard.
1769 Prue Family
Based on the quality and style of the head stone it was created in New England and shipped her later on. That was common here since there were no stone carvers here at the time.
This is one of the earliest graves in Charleston. The oldest are in St. Michael’s down the street.
