Charleston Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• 
  Fort Sumter

  Look toward Fort Sumter, whether you can see it from the waterfront or are arriving by ferry, the man-made island in Charleston Harbor where the Civil War began. At 4:30 in the morning on April 12, 1861, Confederate shore batteries opened fire on the federal garrison commanded by Major Robert Anderson.

• 
  Fort Moultrie

  Fort Moultrie rises around you on Sullivan's Island, a site layered with history from the Revolution through the Second World War. On June 28, 1776, a small American force under Colonel William Moultrie defended an unfinished fort built of palmetto logs against a British naval assault.

• The Battery

  Iron cannons greet you along the Battery, Charleston's seawall where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet the harbor. The iron cannons you see here are relics of a city that spent three centuries fortifying itself against attack.

• Rainbow Row

  Thirteen Georgian row houses greet you in shades of peach, coral, yellow, and pink along Rainbow Row, the most photographed stretch of street in Charleston. These buildings date to the 1740s and were originally merchants' warehouses and shops, their ground floors used for commerce while owners lived above.

• 
  Old Slave Mart Museum

  On Chalmers Street you face the Old Slave Mart Museum, one of the only surviving buildings in the United States where enslaved people were publicly auctioned. Built in 1856 as part of the Ryan's Mart complex, this building was constructed specifically for the domestic slave trade that boomed after Congress banned the international importation of enslaved Africans in 1808.

All 40 stops

• Waterfront Park (Downtown Charleston)

  A pineapple fountain greets you here at Waterfront Park on the banks of the Cooper River, a symbol of Southern hospitality.

• The Battery (South of Broad)

  Iron cannons greet you along the Battery, Charleston's seawall where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet the harbor.

• White Point Garden (South of Broad)

  Shaded oaks draped in Spanish moss welcome you to White Point Garden at the southernmost tip of the Charleston peninsula.

• South of Broad (South of Broad)

  Broad piazzas and elaborate ironwork gates line the South of Broad neighborhood around you, one of the most intact antebellum districts in the United States.

• Rainbow Row (Lower Church Street)

  Thirteen Georgian row houses greet you in shades of peach, coral, yellow, and pink along Rainbow Row, the most photographed stretch of street in Charleston.

• Edmondston-Alston House (East Battery)

  The Edmondston-Alston House greets you, one of the finest surviving antebellum townhouses in the American South.

• Nathaniel Russell House (Meeting Street)

  Octagonal rooms and a freestanding elliptical staircase await you inside the Nathaniel Russell House, completed in 1808 as one of the finest examples of Adam-style…

• Chalmers Street (French Quarter)

  Look down at the cobblestones beneath your feet on Chalmers Street, one of the oldest streetscapes in North America.

• Old Exchange Building (Broad Street)

  The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon rises around you, completed in 1771 as one of the most historically significant buildings in the United States.

• Provost Dungeon (Broad Street)

  Darkness closes around you at the entrance to the Provost Dungeon, the space beneath the Old Exchange that held prisoners during the Revolutionary War's most…

• Church Street (French Quarter)

  Notice how Church Street forms the axis of what Charlestonians have long called the Holy City.

• St. Michael's Episcopal Church (Broad Street)

  St. Michael's white steeple has guided sailors your way since 1761, the oldest church building in South Carolina.

• St. Philip's Episcopal Church (Church Street)

  St. Philip's graceful white steeple has crowned the Charleston skyline since the current building was completed in 1836, watching over your walk today.

• First Baptist Church (Church Street)

  The First Baptist Church of Charleston welcomes you, founded in 1682 as the oldest Baptist congregation in the American South.

• Bethel Methodist Church (Pitt Street)

  Bethel Methodist Church stands for you as part of a story of African American religious life among the most important and most suppressed chapters in…

• Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (Hasell Street)

  Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, Hebrew for Holy Congregation House of God, welcomes you to the second-oldest synagogue building in the United States and the oldest…

• Huguenot Church (Church Street)

  The Huguenot Church welcomes you here, the only remaining Huguenot congregation in the United States that holds regular services.

• Charleston City Hall (Broad Street)

  Charleston City Hall greets you here, built in 1801 on one of the most symbolically loaded corners in America.

• Confederate Home (Broad Street)

  Near you stands the Confederate Home and College, a complex that illuminates one of the most consequential acts of historical revisionism in American history: the…

• Charleston City Market (Market Street)

  Since the early nineteenth century the Charleston City Market has been a center of commerce, and its four-block-long shed stretches ahead of you now.

• Slave Deck Memorial (Columbus Street)

  One of the most solemn sites in the United States waits for you here, the location of Gadsden's Wharf, where historians believe more enslaved Africans…

• Old Slave Mart Museum (Chalmers Street)

  On Chalmers Street you face the Old Slave Mart Museum, one of the only surviving buildings in the United States where enslaved people were publicly…

• Emanuel AME Church (Calhoun Street)

  Mother Emanuel, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, lifts its white steeple in front of you, one of the oldest and most historically significant Black churches…

• Denmark Vesey Monument (Hampton Park)

  Hampton Park holds the Denmark Vesey monument a few steps from you, honoring one of the most significant and least well-known figures in American history.

• Aiken-Rhett House (Elizabeth Street)

  In front of you is the Aiken-Rhett House, arguably the most important antebellum townhouse complex in the United States.

• Magazine Street (Radcliffeborough)

  Magazine Street stretches out around you in the Radcliffeborough neighborhood, named for Thomas Radcliffe who developed this area in the early nineteenth century.

• Cabbage Row (Church Street)

  Cabbage Row, 89 and 91 Church Street, sits across from you, a pair of antebellum buildings that became the inspiration for one of the most…

• Heyward-Washington House (Church Street)

  Daniel Heyward built the Heyward-Washington House you see here in 1772, and his son Thomas Heyward Jr., one of the signers of the Declaration of…

• Drayton Hall (Ashley River Road)

  Drayton Hall rises around you, built between 1738 and 1742, considered the finest example of Georgian Palladian architecture in America.

• Middleton Place (Ashley River Road)

  Middleton Place welcomes you, home to the oldest landscaped gardens in America, begun in 1741.

• Fort Moultrie (Sullivan's Island)

  Fort Moultrie rises around you on Sullivan's Island, a site layered with history from the Revolution through the Second World War.

• Fort Sumter (Charleston Harbor)

  Look toward Fort Sumter, whether you can see it from the waterfront or are arriving by ferry, the man-made island in Charleston Harbor where the…

• Magnolia Cemetery (North Charleston)

  Established in 1850 as part of the rural cemetery movement that sought to create park-like burial grounds outside the crowded city, Magnolia Cemetery opens its…

• Original Settlement Site (Church Street)

  Picture Charles Towne here, the original English settlement that would become Charleston, close to where you now walk.

• Eastside Neighborhood (East Side)

  You have arrived in the Eastside neighborhood, one of Charleston's historic African American communities and a place whose story encompasses the full trajectory of Black…

• Elliott Street (Harleston Village)

  Elliott Street stretches out around you in the Harleston Village neighborhood, an area that developed primarily in the early nineteenth century as Charleston's professional and…

• Ansonborough (East Side)

  Ansonborough spreads out around you, one of Charleston's oldest neighborhoods, laid out in the early eighteenth century and named for British Admiral George Anson.

• Wadmalaw Island (Sea Islands)

  Wadmalaw Island stretches out around you, part of the Sea Islands that run along the South Carolina and Georgia coast, a world apart from the…

• Gadsden's Wharf (Columbus Street)

  Gadsden's Wharf spreads out around you, named for Christopher Gadsden, one of Charleston's most ardent patriots, designer of the Don't Tread on Me Gadsden Flag…

• McLeod Plantation (James Island)

  McLeod Plantation waits around you on James Island, one of the most important and least-known historic sites in the American South.

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