An Afternoon in Charleston

·         Aiken Rhett House

“Great cities are tapestries – their history, character, and uniqueness are the fabric from which they’re woven.” - Charleston Historic Foundation.
 It would not be a trip with mom if we did not go see some historic houses.  Certainly, we were not going to get to spend the whole week at the beach.
The History of the Nathaniel Russell House
The home’s graceful, free-flying, three-story staircase is an architectural marvel with each cantilevered step supporting the one above and below it.

·         Thursday, we drove to Charleston, SC to see the Aiken Rhett House and the Nathaniel Russell House. 

Trees loomed in the distance as we drove. As usual, their luminescent lines are haunting and beautiful.  

They are witnesses to our nation’s tragedy, some call slavery our original sin.  And you can’t drive through South 

Carolina without bearing witness to its legacy.

·         The US Civil War was fought over the issue.  In the end, the union won.  The president who presided 

over the conflict was assassinated.  And the lessons of the conflict were obfuscated in the name of national unity, 

with the reconstruction failing to grasp the task at hand. Instead of advancing their cause, the freed slaves lost 

civil liberties and long-term racial integration and reconciliation was never achieved.  The Jim Crow system

 grew. 

There were moments when the country addressed the lingering wounds, but wars on poverty, quickly turned to wars

 on the poor, on drug users, sending them into the criminal justice system.

·         But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

·          

·         In between trips to the Aiken Rhett  and the Nathaniel Russell Houses, we stopped at Pearlz Oyster Bar on East Bay Street, for friend oysters, Oysters Rockefeller, etc.  And laughed and laughed. I walked through Charleston, taking in the sites of historic house after house, the trees and gardens, a cemetery or two, even stopping outside the old market, housing the Museum of the Confederacy.  The history extends deep here.  Its well worth considering the links between the economy we have today and the free labor that helped to create the wealth behind it. Like the gold in the churches in Spain,  colonial plunders that helped line their walls. The same could be said for the houses of Charleston, SC.   It was a hot day.

Charleston Historic Foundation offers a useful overview of the two preserved Aiken Rhett House and the restored Nathaniel Russell House.

The History of the Aiken-Rhett House

Built in 1820 by merchant John Robinson, the Aiken-Rhett House is nationally significant as one of the best-preserved townhouse complexes in the nation. Vastly expanded by Governor and Mrs. William Aiken, Jr. in the 1830s and again in the 1850s, the house and its outbuildings include a kitchen, the original slave quarters, carriage block and back lot. The house and its surviving furnishings offer a compelling portrait of urban life in antebellum Charleston, as well as a Southern politician, slaveholder and industrialist. The house spent 142 years in the Aiken family's hands before being sold to the Charleston Museum and opened as a museum house in  1975

A National Historic Landmark, the Nathaniel Russell House Museum was built over a five-year period and completed in 1808 by Charleston merchant Nathaniel Russell. The house cost $80,000 to build, at a time when the average value of a home was $262. The home’s graceful, free-flying, three-story staircase is an architectural marvel with each cantilevered step supporting the one above and below it. The graceful interiors with elaborate plasterwork ornamentation, geometrically shaped rooms, formal gardens and collection of 18th-century decorative and fine art speak to the wealth of Charleston’s elite in the early days of the American Republic.

Restored to its original splendor using forensic analysis and cutting-edge conservation technology by our curatorial staff, we ensure the highest standards of old-world expertise to replicate the finishes, fixtures and textiles appropriate for this 200-year old townhouse. Because restoration is an ongoing process, visitors have the opportunity to see and learn about the meticulous care, craft and consideration that goes into every detail.

The 18 enslaved Africans that lived on and maintained the property during the Russell occupancy are an integral part of the history of this one-of-kind house. An exhibit in the original kitchen house features archaeological artifacts, educational panels and stories of the people vital to the history of this property.