Historic Downtown Charleston

ANSONBOROUGH

Overview
Renowned for historic architectural elegance amid an atmosphere of cozy serenity, Ansonborough is among the most delightful and sought-after addresses on the Charleston peninsula. Quiet, shaded streets feature a range of handsome properties built during the city’s economic and cultural heyday in 18th and 19th centuries, including Charleston’s oldest private home, the Col. William Rhett house, which dates to 1712.

Homes with grand columns and piazzas, stately pediments and cornices, intricate wrought iron and garden courtyards, as well as massive live oaks and cobblestones are treasures found at every turn in an area within a few blocks of the bustling city market and shopping district.

The charming neighborhood was conceived in 1696 as the first suburb of the original walled city of Charles Town. It came to be known by its current name for colonial naval officer George Anson, future First Lord of the Admiralty, who was said to have won rights to the property in a card game with a wealthy local merchant .

Nationally-recognized as a model for historic preservation and rehabilitation in the 1960’s, Ansonborough today retains a distinctive look and feel of Charleston long ago, yet within a short walk of up-scale restaurants, fine art galleries, libraries and museums, world-class retail , and the very heart of a bustling modern city.

Real estate opportunities include expansive single and double houses dating to Georgian and Greek Revival styles, as well as quaint town and carriage houses and condominiums.

ELLIOTBOROUGH

Overview
This mix of antebellum and Victorian-era houses sits on the site of Charleston’s lines of defense during the Revolutionary War. The easy access to the downtown business and college district has made Elliotborough an up-and-coming Charleston address.

FRENCH QUARTER NEIGHBORHOOD

Overview
Graced with quaint theaters and art galleries, historic church steeples, cobblestone streets, and an atmosphere of relaxed luxury, Charleston French Quarter is an island of bohemian delights within America’s most historic city.

A quiet residential area of graceful homes and gardens, the quarter is surrounded by cozy restaurants, fashionable retail shops and lively entertainment venues. Featuring property that comprised much of the original walled city dating back too 1704, French Quarter eccentricities include old pirate taverns and tunnels dating to colonial days, the nation’s only and most famous French Anglican church, and the old theater where Planter’s punch was first concocted, and centuries-old graveyards where ghost tours are still the rage.

Part of the National Historic Register for its concentration of 18th and 19th century architecture, the French Quarter boasts some of the city’s best examples of early Georgian single houses, airy piazzas and verdant courtyard gardens.

Among Charlestonians, the French Quarter retains a reputation as an artistic and cultural haven for the many exclusive galleries, sidewalk artists, and breathtaking scenes along its fabled streets.

Just north of Broad Street and bounded by the old city market and vibrant Meeting and East Bay streets, the French Quarter is both a fashionable and convenient address for the active and culturally involved Charleston resident.

HAMPTON PARK TERRACE

Overview
Only minutes from the heart of downtown Charleston, this address is a perfect alternative for the buyer looking for Southern charm in a quiet, residential setting. Hampton Terrace features one of the most impressive displays of early twentieth century architecture in the city, and is adjacent beautiful Hampton Park, which boasts thirteen acres of lush gardens, live oaks, reflecting ponds and hiking trails.

HARLESTON VILLAGE

Overview
Originally developed in 1770, Harleston village is a convenient, historic address in peninsular Charleston. This pleasant mix of antebellum houses and upscale modern townhouses is situated on the site of the first golf club in America, and a congenial community atmosphere still prevails. Surrounding the shady blocks of Harleston Village are the prestigious College of Charleston, South Carolina’s Medical University complex, and historic Cannon park and Colonial Lake.

Many of the old homes were built from the wealth of early 19th century rice mills that lined nearby Ashley River, and some of Charleston’s finest Italianate, Regency and Georgian architecture is featured in such noteworthy examples as the Blacklocke and Jenkins-Mikell houses and the College of Charleston’s Randolph Hall.

The sidewalk stroll is the preferred means of transportation along these quiet streets, where neighbors gather for morning cappuccino at corner cafes or late -afternoon cocktails on garden piazzas. Only a few blocks from the King Street retail district, the stylish restaurants of the City market, and the yachts and sailboats of the Charleston Marina, Harleston Village offers easy access to all the pleasures and necessities of the good life.

MAZYCK WRAGGSBOROUGH NEIGHBORHOOD

Overview
Once, along these broad avenues, antebellum sea captains built their dream houses, and today, the dreams of finding peninsular Charleston’s most stylishly unique address come true. The charming openness of Mazyck-Wraggborough is no accident, as this area was planned to exquisite detail in the 1780’s for the wealthy and their kin. In fact, seven streets names are for the children of 18th century landholder Joseph Wragg, whose heirs kept the community/family spirit alive by donating tree-lined green spaces known as Wragg Square and Wragg Mall.

Homes and churches dating to the early 1800’s are built on the site of colonial-era pastures, where Charleston’s “sons of liberty” first gathered to plant the seed of the American Revolution. Some of the finest early architecture is featured in the Manigault House museum and the historic Second Presbyterian Church, and throughout Mazyck-Wraggborough, wrought iron gates, elaborate cornices, and stately piazzas still tie the area to its prestigious past.

At its periphery, however, Mazyck-Wraggborough embraces the future, bordered by the classy Charleston Music Hall, the attractive Charleston Visitors’ Center complex, the Gaillard Auditorium, and the brand-new Charleston Maritime Center complex.

Quiet, roomy and historic along its inner streets, and a central location for arts and activities and events all around, Mazyck-Wraggborough offers a stylish and practical Charleston address.

RADCLIFFEBORO

Overview
One of peninsular Charleston’s most charming and undiscovered suburbs is the Radcliffeboro area.  Bounded by a hip and burgeoning King Street business section on one side and historic, charming Ashley Hall School on the other,  Radcliffeboro represents Charleston’s graceful, tasteful merge of old and new.  Great, columned mansions of the antebellum era share blocks and magnolia trees with recent homes in a vibrant atmosphere of stylish construction.  Within a few blocks of the heralded South Carolina Medical University complex and the prestigious College of Charleston, Radcliffeboro is a favored address among college professors, doctors and other professionals. .

SOUTH OF BROAD

Overview
For centuries, historic peninsular Charleston’s most desirable and distinctive address has been South of Broad Street. It was in these grand old homes that George Washington slept, Robert E. Lee dined, and Teddy Roosevelt socialized. From these same magnificent piazzas, Charlestonians watched the firing on Fort Sumter that began the Civil War and today host grand soirees for the internationally-acclaimed Spoleto Arts Festival.

The scale of stunning historic architecture throughout the South of Broad area sets it apart from any city in North America. Regal Georgian gables and paneling, detailed Adamesque staircases and moldings, ornamented Greek Revival columns and parapets, elaborate Italianate arches and cornices, and decorative Victorian turrets and chimneys sweep the South of Broad area with a graceful diversity of classic styles.

Flanked by moss-laden oaks and sculpted gardens, the picturesque street scenes South of Broad display an unmatched timelessness etched into an intricate blend of wrought iron gates, slate sidewalks and cobblestone pavement.

Each block offers a sensory splendor, as bells of colonial church steeples blend with the sounds of horse-drawn carriages and restless Carolina wrens. Spring, summer, fall and winter all boast flowering plants and trees South of Broad, as the air sweetens with jasmine, magnolia, and tea olive, and seasons brighten with banks of camellia, azalea , and rose.

For the prospective homeowner, South of Broad’s value is incomparable as an investment or a prestigious address. Properties here are the rarest of the rare jewel that is historic Charleston, and feature some of America’s most famous houses and gardens and some of the East coast’s most stunning views.