What can I say about Charleston? I was fortunate enough to attend the College of Charleston 1986 to 1991. Charleston will forever be like home to me. I can mentally trace all the streets and alleys in my memory. The city is why I am an urban planner and tourism expert. I took these photographs many years later on an exceptionally sunny February day--just like I remember it.
King Street
The Charleston Row House--note the porch oriented to the side to capture the breeze before the age of air conditioning
The Battery
See my 2003 article in the Journal of American Planning Association, "Tourism Planning in Historic Districts: Attitudes toward tourism development in Charleston." Very proud of that article--it was a labor of love.
Infamous Dive Big John's where I played pool often
--now gone
Famous Cobblestone Streets near the Battery
The historic College of Charleston campus
The Albert Sottile House example of Victorian architecture
Anterior staircase
A Small Carriage House
St. Paul's Church
The G&M, Broad Street
The Battery
Warm Winter Sun
Greek Revival architecture
Rainbow Row, the inspiration for Gershwin's Catfish Row--the setting for the folk opera Porgy and Bess. Although I've listened to several recorded versions of P&B, the Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaboration (1959) towers over all other versions. Yes, it has the best version of "Summertime," but the languorous feel of the score most accurately captures the city's humid, almost mysterious feel, especially toward dusk after a long, hot day.
My sister had an apartment near here on Elliott Street back in the 1980s when such accomodations were affordable--I never took it for granted and knew it was a special time from which germinated lifelong interests in architecture, planning, design, and historic preservation--the building blocks for tourism and destination management.
The requiste carriage tour
King Street
I believe this was a Student Career Center, and I think before that a bar called Group Therapy, how ironic!
This was my fraternity, but the house we occupied was next door at the time.
I believe this was the fraternity house I lived in sometime around 1988 until Hurricane Hugo turned everything upside down--but that is another story for another time...
The College of Charleston Cistern in front of the central administration building. I used to love to attend the May alumni reception with my friend A.J. Meyer.
Unbelievably beautiful place to attend school
A variation on shrimp and grits
Upper King Street
Charleston--The Holy City
