Finding "My" Charleston…Digging down on the block I live on…to see what I can find.

Category: Charleston SC history

  • The Revolutionary War—1782 and the Letters of Eliza Wilkinson

    I also found this book when I first started researching Charleston and put it on my shelf. It took me four years but once I seriously went looking for a few women to write about, I read it through and fell in love with Eliza. She was not strictly in my neighborhood…but in the next…

  • Remembrances of Charleston Women in the Civil War

    I think I mentioned earlier that I found a treasure of a book on-line called “Our Women in the War.” It is a compilation of women’s stories from across the South. The stories were requested, gathered and published by the Charleston News and Courier in 1885 with the subtitle: The Lives They Lived: The Deaths…

  • Caroline Howard Gilman 1794—1888

    Creator of the Charleston Unitarian Church Graveyard among other things Charleston’s old Unitarian graveyard is a popular tourist site for two reasons: One, the grounds are left more or less to nature with minimal control by volunteers. And two, it is haunted. I will add links if you are interested in more…a great story about…

  • In the Beginning…Affra Harleston Comings 1670-1698

    In the Beginning…Affra Harleston Comings 1670-1698

    I have decided to go back to the beginning with a slightly different focus; early women in my neighborhood. While my block was quiet or at times should have been…my neighborhood was not. In fact, luckily for me, there is a woman who is locally well known for being a first settler on the first…

  • A Few Women around my Neighborhood…

    A Few Women around my Neighborhood…

    Like with the history of the slaves in Charleston, much work has been done also on women. My little bit of history writing eventually settled on telling the stories of the local women. As I’ve said before, most early history books of the early days of most American cities and towns are written to a…

  • Charleston Adds a Historical Marker on the Riot of 1919

    The riot began where the marker is placed on Archdale Street between Market and Beaufain…added this summer. I have written about this riot in the last post in my series on my block in this blog. So, I was surprised and happy to see that the city and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church were already ahead…

  • Phase Five…The Church under my parking lot and the Red-Light District.

    I have documented what little history that I could find in this blog of the church graveyard that was moved just before they paved the new city parking lot in my backyard and the church and congregation that went with it. I was very lucky to have the News & Courier articles to follow, especially…

  • Phase Four of the Church under my Parking Lot…1861-1873…War and Beyond

    This is the last of Reverend Dana’s Phases in the life of his church from the Charleston, SC News and Courier article I have been quoting written in 1873. We have followed the congregation of the Third Presbyterian Church on Archdale Street where they had begun in 1823 and their move to 273/5 Meeting Street…

  • Phase Three…1849-1861… of the Church under My Parking Lot…Prosperity

    Reverend Dana continues in the News and Courier Charleston SC July 14, 1873, article… The career of the church had been singularly peaceful. No schism had existed. The half-century under review may be divided into four parts. The first of twelve and a half years; the second twelve and a half years, ending July 1848;…

  • Phase Two–1835-1848–The Church Under My Parking Lot…and Fire

    Continuing with the Charleston SC 1873 News and Courier article of an interview and sermon by Rev. Dana from Third Presbyterian Church…under my parking lot… “The half-century under review may be divided into four parts. The first of twelve and a half years; (the last post, Phase One) the second twelve and a half years,…