Touring Charleston with Lydia Lucas.

intro
Welcome to Living in Charleston podcast with your host, Lisa Richard Hernandez, a fun loving Charleston resident for over 25 years and a full time real estate agent with her falls on everything Charleston, from where to live, to where to eat, what to do, where to tour, and who is who about living life in the low country of Charleston, South Carolina.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi, welcome to living in Charleston podcast. This is Lisa Richart Hernandez. And I am here today with a very special guest, our assistant for View Properties Real Estate, Lydia Lucas. And today we are going to talk about all things tourism in Charleston. So in this first segment of living in Charleston podcast, we want to just kind of given a general overview of all of the great things about Charleston in areas. And then later on in our podcast, we’re going to start doing a deep dive into those specific areas and interview some local business owners and those kind of things. So you’ll get a little more entrenched in exactly what area you may be interested in Charleston. But for now, we want to talk to you about one of the most important things if you’re coming to visit Charleston. And that is tourism. So Lydia, say hello, and tell us a little bit about yourself and your history here in Charleston.

Lydia
Hey, y’all. I have lived in Charleston, my whole life Born and raised, my family has been here since the 1690. So we’re about as native as you get, considering Charleston was founded in 1670. But because of that, and because we are always been so interested in the history, I worked in tourism for well over a decade, had my tour guide license here in Charleston, which was an easy thing to get it is very rigorous testing. But I was a carriage tour guide for seven years straight. And I loved every minute of it, telling all them, you know, educating people on the history of Charleston and all the cool things that you can do and see around here. I mean, it’s amazing. I mean, it’s like stepping into Europe, in lots of parts of the city. So

Lisa RichartHernandez
wow, that’s I mean, that’s blows my mind like 18, what did you say? 18..

Lydia
1617 things the city was founded.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow, that’s amazing. And I have heard a lot of people ask, why don’t we I’ve been in Charleston for 25 years. And one of the things I always tell people to do is, is if you want to do one touristy thing downtown, definitely do those carriage tours, and never had any idea the the amount of testing and knowledge that the carriage two operators actually have. Can you elaborate a little bit on that?

Lydia
Absolutely. Um, for the testing, you have to take a 200 multiple choice test. And the study guide that give you the study manual is 600 pages long. It includes every single home, and a description in the historic district. I mean, it is out of control. I mean, anything from everything about the houses, the architecture, the plants that are native here, the plates that were brought here from other areas. I mean, it is very, very detailed. And so the tour guides here really have to know their business. I mean, I think other cities that have large tourism, community, they they base their testing on Charleston, so we we’ve done it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow. Wow. That’s so cool. I mean, a lot of people always say, Oh, those poor horses that are out there during the carriage tours and stuff like that. I’m sure you got that a million times when your tour operator.

Lydia
Yeah, there’s a little bit we had to deal with. It’s a little bit more of an issue nowadays. But those horses have we’re better taken care of than we were they had health insurance, dental insurance. I mean, I didn’t see a dentist the whole time I worked there, and they had been twice a year come in and check their teeth. I grew up with horses had in my whole life. We bred them there. You know, I’ve always been an animal lover. And if I saw anything that was not right, we wouldn’t work there.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow, that’s awesome. So tell us about how that just I mean, there’s so many tours to talk about. And we’ll get into, we’ll get into a little bit on all the different ones that you can make your choices. But I always say this is my favorite one to do. Well, you explain to our listeners about how the carriage system works with a lottery system. And then kind of just like a brief overview of what the three different tours are all about. Because there’s three right? Well, there’s

Lydia
I think they’ve changed it now to where there’s about five different ones. Okay, so, but originally there was three and then a variation of them. But basically the way it works is there’s five different carriage companies and the city will only allow to have 20 carriages on the town at one time. That way we’re not backing up traffic. And there’s rules and regulations where we have to pull over if there’s so many cars behind us. Also, the lottery system that you were talking about where they can divvy us out into what part of the city you’re allowed to be in. It was the first lottery system in Charleston, you’d pull up right there where the carriages all lined up and up. left his little booth on the corner is ran by the the Tourism Commission. So the city tourism officers would flip on the little bingo machine or whatever different color ball popped up. That’s what the site were you were allowed to be in the city and they put a medallion on the back of your carriage showing that area. And if you were caught outside that area, then you could get a big fine. So, but it was yeah, the first lottery system in the city, it’s everybody thinks it’s kind of fun to see that bingo machine going?

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah, that was one of the things that because we wanted to do with the tour of the battery. And they were like, We don’t know which tour you’re gonna go on specifically. And that was kind of confusing when you’re just like moving here and are visiting and you’re like, oh, how come I can’t pick which one it is or whatever? Well,

Lydia
and that, you know, I think a lot of people would get kind of frustrated about that. But you never know what store you’re going to get. And if you have a tour guide worth their salt, it doesn’t matter what part of the city you’re in, you’re gonna see beautiful million dollar homes, beautiful churches and graveyards and courtyards. And you know, and there’s amazing history on every corner. So if you have a tour guide, who knows the history really, really well and really enjoys it and likes to get entertain people, then you’re gonna you’re just gonna love it no matter what part of the city you get to see.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, that well, that’s that’s, I think over my 25 years, as many friends I’ve had in toners doors, I’ve probably gone on every single one and learned something different on each one. And it’s just so interesting. We talked about the the tours going by the battery, will you kind of just give us an A, a description of how you describe the battery of Charleston, on your tours, and give us a little bit of a history of that. So listeners that are not from Charleston can understand what the battery is because a lot of people will refer to the battery cells abroad. All of that kind of thing. So could you give us just just give us a little bit of a history of the downtown area. Would you do that?

Lydia
Yeah, absolutely. Like we said, originally Charleston was founded in 1670, was part of a land grant given by King Charles the second of England, to eight Lords proprietor, and Lord’s proprietor, when here was Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, which are the two rivers that come back through the by the peninsula, actually in the Cooper River. When they first gave him this land grant, it was a 60 acre sandbar was what Charleston was originally. So when they first got here, Market Street, which everybody’s very familiar with, that was the southern boundary of the city. It was Daniel’s Creek. So it was a title Creek. Meeting Street was a moat that they had bridge, a bridge coming across, that was the western boundary of the city, East Bay Street was the bay. And that was the eastern boundary of the city. Now, if you go a little further south abroad towards the battery, you have Water Street, which is are now a residential street. And that was a tidal creek as well, that was a southern boundary of the city.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I guess that explains some of our flooding problems. I don’t know that

Lydia
The majority, the majority of Charleston is Lilienfeld used with oyster shells, and actually probably trash from back in those days, which is maybe a little different from the trash we have today. But it was built up. And so the battery over time was bland that was built up. Back in the 1700s. They use the battery. What we know today is white point Gardens is where they would execute pirates that they caught in the area. So they’re, it’s a pirate graveyard underneath that beautiful park that everybody likes to visit, which is very interesting. And that explains some of the Haunted Houses little of the darker side of Charleston, that history. But eventually, what’s the you know, wars started, which is, you know, we, the first battle of the Revolutionary War was fought here in Charleston. Also, or if 1812 Then on to the Civil War. The reason why you hear the word the battery is that’s where they had cannons lined up to defend the city. And it was defended against battering from outside, you know, so that’s why you hear the term the battery. But today, you will see those old cannons, but it is just now a beautiful residential place to live. And the reason why you see all these amazing, huge mansions on the water is not only for the view, but was to catch the breezes in the days before there was air conditioning. So that was the place you wanted to be because it is hot down here in Charleston.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, especially those ladies that were like all those petticoats and gigantic dresses and stuff.

Lydia
Oh, and the men had to wear full suits. Oh, gosh. So yeah, I mean, it was not easy live in here back in those days, but I guess you wouldn’t know the difference.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I suppose. So what about there’s a fort out in the water? Fort Sumter. How far like how did that play a part in Charleston’s history there?

Lydia
Fort Sumter was not built until the 1800s. It was actually built with granite that they brought down from New England, we don’t have stone here in Charleston as you’ll know the story, why the Palmetto tree became our state tree. During the Revolutionary War, we built a fort on Sullivan’s Island. And we had word that the British were heading this way. We didn’t have a lot of time. So they just threw together a Palmetto log fort. And once the firing began on the fort, cannon balls would hit it. And just so happened because the wood is very spongy, it would absorb cannonball. So it was kind of a fluke on our part. We didn’t know what’s going to happen, but it turned out really well for us. But we had there’s these three battleships during the Revolutionary War that were coming in. They were going to try and flank us go around the backsides. We hadn’t finished the fort on the backside of it. So they were coming through the harbor, but it was low tide, and they ran aground on this huge sandbar. And so they were stuck until high. So high tide came in. And actually the funny thing is the commander of the British Navy at the time, his name was Admiral Peter Parker. Just Spider Man. Oh, yeah, Spider Man suit commanding the British Navy here in Charleston. And basically we we beat them, you know, they had some cannons fly and actually cannonball flew past. I don’t know, bro, Peter, Peter Parker and his britches came off, took his pants right off and oh, wow, that when the tie tide came in, they took off and so we went down to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and started playing three blind mice on the bells that st like Michaels you know, three blind mice see how they run for the three battleships that really left?

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh my gosh, that’s a great story about her. They are it’s

Lydia
about Charleston and so that but that sandbar that they ran aground on is what fort Sumpter is not built on today. Ah, they started bringing the they started bringing down that granite from New England, building it up in war of 1812. And then it was taken over when things started getting hot between the North and the South. Right before the Civil War started the union had control of Fort Sumpter and we did fire the first shots from James Island. The Confederates dead on to Fort Sumter to start the beginning of the Civil War.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, I always thought that the first shots were fired from the battery. Nope. JAMES ISLAND like over where the club is no

Lydia
James Island folly and that yeah, that area where you know you can meet if you’re out in the harbor, you can see Morris Island Lighthouse pretty well. So James Island and that area.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay. So in modern times, now, there’s tours that you can also go to to two or four Sumner, which you gave us a little bit history of that there’s boat tours that can take you there. Where did they leave from from Mount Pleasant and

Lydia
the majority of them I don’t know if they have one that leaves from Pleasant now, but they definitely have one that leaves from around the aquarium. Yeah, close to Lauren Street, which is right there next to the aquarium and you can get off the boat and go on to Fort Sumpter. It’s pretty much ruins at this point. But you can see the remnants of it or you can just get a fun boat tour to cruise around the harbor and check everything out.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I’ve done that for that’s the second tour that I recommend, if you’re in addition to the carriage tours is the fort Sumpter tour because I just love that you can get out on a boat on the harbor and actually see Charleston from a boat which is absolutely really really

Lydia
cool. Well, I mean, you look at the skyline of Charleston and it’s just all beautiful church depot’s you know we do have a law here that nothing is allowed to be billed as higher than the tallest church steeple. So we always have that beautiful skyline,

Lisa RichartHernandez
right? Yeah. How do you know anything? Like can you tell us anything more about that, like, I always tell people like there’s no high rises here because of nothing can be higher than the church steeples. But how did that come about? was up?

Lydia
I think it was just partly, you know, because we want to keep the city as beautiful as possible. But secondly, I don’t think it would be wise of us being land, you know, Bill, Tom, Tom Marsh, and landfill to build these really huge buildings and areas where you know, it could be like a Venice situation where starts sinking usually, yeah, we also do have earthquakes here. So and the thing about you know, people don’t think about it here because we do have earthquakes and we have them frequently. We’re sitting on the Woodstock fault line, which is basically Somerville, that area sits right on top of it right outside of Charleston or further inland. But since we’re standing on sand instead of bedrock, like they are in California, it absorbs the shock more times than you so you don’t feel it that often. But if you have an extremely large one, like the one we had in 1886, April of 1886, it was a 7.2 I believe on today’s Richter scale, and the San liquified. So basically, you can see five to six foot waves of Earth rolling through the city of Charleston, and picking up buildings and dropping back down.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow.

Lydia
So, you know, I think all of these factors has, you know, in Paris, why

Lisa RichartHernandez
there’s been a lot of things that have destroyed Charleston, in our history, right, like fires and earthquakes and stuff,

Lydia
fires big problem, because you got that good breeze, everybody really enjoys coming off the harbor there. You know, we have all the docks that had, you know, warehouses full cotton, everything was, you know, lit by candlelight back in those days. So you had that issue, you have hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, it’s happened doesn’t happen quite as often as the other the other things. But yes, there are quite a few things we’ve dealt with back in our history.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we definitely don’t want to like scare people away from Charleston for fear of earthquakes. Because when did we say the last one that was actually did damage to the city was 1886 1886. So

Lydia
there’s only been one tornado that sat down on the peninsula. And that was 1938. So it’s, it’s not as scary as it sounds? And can you imagine? I mean, today, we, you know, I was joking around about folks that live out in the Midwest with tornadoes, like tornadoes, you don’t get a heads up about it, you know, happens, and I’m going to at least we get fair warning now, you know, with these hurricanes, so we can prepare. And, you know, I just think about that being back then in the 1800s. And, you know, you don’t know what’s coming and all of a sudden, airs hurricane upon you. But you know, we’ve lived I’ve lived here my whole life, and it’s always been something manageable. And we’ve, you know, don’t even worry about it as much these days. So,

Lisa RichartHernandez
so we talked a little bit about the Fort Sumter tour. So much history is downtown. And that’s like such a great area for tours. Have you done any of the different walking tours? Or can you tell us about some of those that are available or any that you possibly recommend? I know we’ve got pub doors and ghost tours and what Tell me, tell me what you know about those? Absolutely.

Lydia
The carriage doors greet are a really good way to get some great history. If you don’t have you’re not super mobile, or if you just kind of want to stroll but the walking tours are great too. I mean, you get to kind of really peek down and see people’s courtyards and you know walking through the residential area and you get some good info from from a good tour guide. Go stores. There’s plenty of those stories in Charleston. I lived downtown when I was a tour guide and didn’t really want to know all the stories because

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wait, you have to tell us Do you have to know some good like ghost stories though. In your all your years of being you gotta tell us some just your favorite ones. You don’t want to don’t want to be like a spoiler alert. But well, though,

Lydia
there are several little stories that I’ve heard from friends just from their experiences. I had a friend or currently still works in the Old City Jail, which you can actually tour and that building. They made it look like it’s a place you don’t want to spend any time it is not it’s a scary looking building. And you can tour it at night with a tour guide. And I remember a girlfriend mine who was giving the tours she was locking up one night and she was down and one of the bottom floors and she said a brick just landed at her feet out of nowhere just flew through air and landed at her feet. And she was freaked out I’m surprised she still does the tours but there’s a carriage battery in which is old carriage house behind when these big mansions on South patrie which is our bed and breakfast. And there’s been lots of stories told that there’s two different spirits that like to hang out in that carriage den. And one is the torso of a Union soldier who is just nope, no arms, no heads, no legs, and he’s just kind of floating around there you wake up and see him he’s kind of making these moaning groaning noises very scary. There was also another one called the gentleman collar and he would climb into bed with with people with ladies. While she they were staying there. Oh, yeah. And so those are and I had friend who also was working at that at that. And she did not last very long because she got so freaked out really? I don’t think she actually ever saw it but she just had trouble going in certain rooms that you know, new hairs on the back of her neck would just stand up and she just felt the president Finally she was like I just can’t deal with it anymore.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh my god

Lydia
no, I would be of that mind because I’m big when it comes to that kind of stuff.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I think that there’s the ghost tours are like an hour long of walking tour. So I’m sure that there are plenty of ghost stories in Charleston. Oh absolutely. This whole area even Savannah when you go to visit other like older cities. I think it’s funny that we talked about Charleston being so old. I thought we had so much history here until I went to go visit Rome well 100% Absolute and I was like oh my god that’s like BC like a 1000s of years ago like there’s like actual ruins you know of another whole lifetime underneath civilization. Mater. Yeah, it’s crazy. Absolutely. But I think in the United States we have one of the most historic, there’s so much history here.

Lydia
Well, absolutely. There is so much history in Charleston. And one of the reasons why it’s still you can see it, you can see the history because we were fortunate enough during the Civil War that Sherman did not come through and burn the entire city down. Like he did Atlanta and other southern cities, we were already had gone through a almost full year of firing on us, you know, so there was a lot of patching up to do. But the majority of the buildings were still intact, where they could be repaired. Although it only took it took us almost to mid 1900s, for Charleston to fully recover from the Civil War. So our tourism actually didn’t pick up till after Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989. That was a big part a big thing for us. Because once all that insurance money came through, we were able to really fix up the, you know, the houses in the city. So it’s kind of funny to say that you go home this was a blessing in disguise for Charleston because it wasn’t told them that our tourism really picked up.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, I really didn’t know that because I guess I moved here must have been like 92 ish or something. So Hugo was a few years behind us. They were still rebuilding the Isla pons, which was hit really hard during Hugo, that’s where I lived. Oh, wow. Wow. So people always, never fails. When people come to Charleston or think about moving to Charleston, we might as well just go ahead and touch on this whole hurricane topic, because it just freaks people out. I’m sure. I get it, you know, but it I tell people like, no matter what, when you move to Charleston, we are always going to be in the eye of uncertainty. On some spaghetti model, it is going to show the hurricane hitting Charleston. So whatever, we get the weather channel that says we’re getting a hurricane or there’s a tropical storm off of the coast of Africa, they’ll be like, and then it’s coming for Charleston. 100% ever failed. So like the whole city sits and watches the Weather Channel for like a whole week. And I’m like, okay, literally like and then they’re like, oh my god, it just moved again towards Charleston. And then everybody goes out and buys water and bread. And then it moves towards Florida, then we’re like, oh, we can relax for a second. And then once again, oh, let’s go into Charleston. So I try to tell people not to panic until they know, but to have a plan and prepare for it. But in reality, the last hurricane that really hit Charleston was in 1989, right?

Lydia
Yes, it did extreme substantial damage. It was 89. And I remember like it was yesterday took about a year for us to get back into our home. Had to go to a different school, the whole thing. But when you’re I was very young at the time, I was in elementary school, and then you’re kind of thinking like, whoa, everything’s different. It’s kind of exciting. And then you get older and have your own stuff. And you’re like No, no hurricanes, hurricanes, bad hurricane one, Category One, we’re just gonna have party, it’s gonna be a good time, right? The only thing we really worried about is power going out for a couple of days. And I have an air conditioning during hurricane season because of course, it’s hot as Hades. But I mean, for the most part, you always have to be prepared, you should always be prepared. That’s, you know, that’s just what you should, you know, have a plan in place to go if you need to. But as it stands, you know, Charleston, folks that are grew up here and dealt with it. We don’t we don’t get too worried about it until it’s unnecessary, you know?

Lisa RichartHernandez
So this is a good question. Speaking of people that live in Charleston, when I used to talk to people, they would say, I never evacuated for hurricane I was born and raised here. mucinous or whatever. And then there’s the people that stayed during Hugo. And they say, I will never ever do that again. What’s What did you do during you go on? What was your? What’s your opinion on that?

Lydia
Well, my family had a farm upstate South Carolina. And so we took our you know, I have entire family wouldn’t stay there. And the hurricane basically followed us up there. And so we woke up 50 trees down no power. But everybody was safe and sound and we just had a lot of work to do, you know, cleaning up and but my husband, he did stay during Hugo and he lived in downtown Charleston, a little further up on the neck of the peninsula. Off of Maple Street or poplar Street, one of the two but not close to the water necessarily, but on the peninsula. And he said he woke up it’ll look like a warzone. He had never he couldn’t recognize where he was. And you know, it was a lot of people having to stand in line to get water and bread and things like that. So I don’t know if they were prepared for it or they didn’t think but you know a lot of people what they do if you can’t leave and you what you’d stay You know, you fill up your bathtub with water, and you in it, it’s gonna be that bad. You can’t get out. They would sleep under a mattress. So if something falls under your on your house, you know, really? Yeah. Oh, yeah, you sleep under a mattress.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay, I don’t highly recommend that. If you can have it, we’re not recommending that form a plan to get, you know, but

Lydia
that back in the 80s. That’s what people did.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. You know what I mean? That was 30 years ago. And you think about it a long way.

Lydia
Exactly. So I’m not trying to not kind of freak anybody out. But I’m just you know, that’s how it was back in those days.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we didn’t have cell phones or anything back then. I mean, think about the difference in technology and 30 years and discounters. Wow. Yeah. Just keeping up with your families and not knowing where people are. That would be

Lydia
difficult. I mean, all you had back then was a radio, battery powered radio,

Lisa RichartHernandez
Because that explains why all the D batteries are always gone during. Oh, yeah. filling them out their, their radios to hear

Lydia
each other. Exactly. So I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s definitely, like I’ve been through it. I’ve lived through it. And it’s was not the easiest of times, but we got through it, and we’re back stronger than ever. Like I said, it was almost a blessing for Charleston, because it really we originally the way Charleston got its money was through the naval base, and the naval base shut down. Right. And so we were kind of like, oh, gosh, how is Charleston gonna create money? You know? And so once you’re after, can you go ahead and tourism became now we’re the number two tourism destination in the world? Yeah, it’s awesome. Yeah. So it’s, it’s, it’s a wonderful thing. And we’re very proud of that. And hope everybody keeps on coming. I know,

Lisa RichartHernandez
especially after all this COVID Craziness. People would just be dying to vacation in their own country and stay around home. And I’m hoping that our hotels and restaurants will be able to get back to full capacity and be busy again. Because we have so many beautiful hotels and restaurants here in Charleston. Let’s talk about I’m looking at my list that I have here of questions. Oh, the Parade of Homes. Let’s talk about, let’s talk about the houses in downtown Charleston. As a realtor, like I love to, when someone is a buyer for downtown Charleston, I get to see out of all the houses and make excuses for it. But I’m one of the funniest things that I just still can’t get over is all these old old houses that people pay a million dollars for with the crooked floors, you know, right? Like they’re, they’re crooked. But there’s also like the architectural committee. What’s it called historic,

Lydia
it’s the short for it’s the bar, which is the board of Architectural Review.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And that governs all of the peninsula of downtown or

Lydia
everything in the house considered the historic district, which is about three square mile. And you know, there’s a lot of houses packed into that three square miles. So but everything that’s done to the exterior of the home has to be approved by the Board of Architectural Review, the what color you paint your house, everything has to go through the board of Architectural Review. You know, you can modernize the inside as much as you had, like a lot of people like to keep the integrity of the home with them crooked floors and all that but it is, you know, there’s reasons why they have they are the way they are. So a lot of people like to stick with it. But you can modernize the kitchens, the bathrooms is just the exterior.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay, walking around downtown, people will always see they’re like little metal round circle things that are on a whole bunch of the homes downtown. Can you explain to us what those are

Lydia
for the crooked crooked floors thing? Yes, those are actually called earthquake bolts. After the earthquake of 1886, what they would do is they would run these Ryan our iron rods in between the floors of the homes and they had it bolted on on either side of the house. And in the middle of that rod, there’d be a turnbuckle. So they would turn that buckle once a day. And it would slowly over time pull the house back together and straighten it back out. Right, which is kind of scary because I think they were pulled together so tightly that next time and you know, hopefully not for a long time from now. There is a very large earthquake, those houses probably just crumbled to the ground because there’s no sway to them at this point.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay, but some people don’t so turn. No, no, no, no, that was the old thing.

Lydia
We but I mean, it was an 1886. And, you know, who knows how long they did it in from, you know, studies they’ve done like these houses might not fare too well and the next earthquake but

Lisa RichartHernandez
hopefully we don’t have another one for a long, long, long time a couple 100 years. Exactly. Not in our lifetime. But there’s also these other little plaques, little plaques on the near the door. Usually there are a couple of plaques you’ll see.

Lydia
One is Carol opolis Award, which is a preservation award. So many of the houses that have been fully renovated and you know, back to its, you know, beautiful self and then also you will see fire insurance markers, which we are the first city in the country to have fire insurance coming He’s so,

Lisa RichartHernandez
so interesting. So like, if a house was burning down, they’d be like, Oh, that’s not us. Pretty, pretty much. Yeah. So there was they would they would Hartman’s

Lydia
Well, there were one, one main one downtown, of course, because I mean, it wasn’t quite as populated when they first started that. But basically, the people who had fire insurance, they’re going to take care of their houses first. It’s not like they’re going to not help people. They don’t buy insurance, but they’re not going to be the first on the list. You know, and of course, those things have righted themselves in this day and age, but back, wow, that’s how it worked. It’s so

Lisa RichartHernandez
interesting. What is your favorite historic home downtown Charleston?

Lydia
Whoa, that’s a toughy. But it depends, it depends on so there are several house museums that you can pay to tour through the homes. If you’re looking to see a home, I mean, there’s just so many different aspects. There’s a place called Aiken red house. And they actually restored that to look like it was originally. I mean, you walk through that house, and it looks like it would have looked and is furnished like it would have been furnished back when folks lived there. Basically what happened, I think there was a tragedy in the family were several of the family members died. And the people who owned it weren’t living there. And they just closed up all the doors or maybe closed the doors and only lived in a couple of rooms. So the house was basically exactly how it was back in 1800s. I mean, he still go in the old kitchen house and see how where they would cook. And so and you and you don’t actually have to have a tour guide. They have people there that will get to answer questions if you want them to, but they give you a little headset, and you can kind of walk through and do it at your own pace. And it tells you about each room recording. So it’s awesome. So if you want to see what life was like for people that isn’t awesome houses tore through. But if you want to see, you know, there’s other houses like the Nathaniel Russell House has a free flying staircase in it. And it is amazing the architecture of it. I’m not even sure if they know how they did it to this day. And it was interesting, I was touring through that house because a lot of our my fellow tour guides on our days off because we were out since we had tour guide licenses, we were allowed to go in and tour things for free. So we would know better history about it so we can let other people know. I remember a group of us went to the Athena Russell House, which is right there on meeting and Trad and I was on the second floor and the tour guides doing her thing telling us stories. And I looked up and above the fireplace there is a picture of a gentleman. And I was like well, he looks familiar. And it was Jonathan Lucas. The second who is my great, great grandfather. And I was like oh my goodness, why? You know, why is his picture above mantle here? It’s because he was business partners with the people who owned that home originally. So that’s why they had his picture there. But I was like, wow, that is so cool. You know. Wow. So you have the Calhoun mansion, which is the biggest house in the city. 24,000 square feet. That’s a House Museum. Also you have the Edmundston Austin house which sits right on East battery which have a perfect view of what Sumpter James Iowan folly Mount Pleasant. You can see everything from this house and that’s where General Beauregard resided when he was in town. Or actually, I don’t think he didn’t live he wasn’t staying there. He watched the beginning of the war as they started firing on Fort Sumpter, from the from the balcony of that home. And that is a very cool house to go tore through as well. So it’s just so hard to pick there are so many.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. That’s um, one of the things so what they call it south of broad and then slightly north of broad which are the snobs right?

Lydia
Yes. slightly north of broad. Yes. If you were an SOB. That’s where he saw South abroad. He was South abroad. You heard somebody because that’s where everybody wanted because of that breeze. I kept talking about, you

Lisa RichartHernandez
know, that’s right. And the prices of homes go up accordingly if you’re an SOB 100% Yes,

Lydia
I do. For sure.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I know. We should look it up because it used to be when I did the tours. Like, I remember 20 years ago when I came here. It was like $100,000 a floor. So it’s like, you know, they’ve got to be million. I mean, they’re millions of dollars now, but Oh, absolutely. It’s funny how much they’ve gone up in value.

Lydia
There was a house while I was still working in the carriage industry several years back and it just sold this year. It was on the Green Street which isn’t even on the water. It is south of broad but it’s called the swords gates house. Beautiful ironwork with swords on it on the front gate. But it does have extremely large lot which is unusual for downtown Charleston, especially South Broad and it was put on the market or $23 million highest priced home in Charleston ever. And of course, it just sold into so this was a Eight years ago, and it just sold, I think for around 15 million I believe. Wow. So that’s still pretty high.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. That’s it’s amazing. Especially when you look at, you know, the size and it’s not even write on the right not on the water.

Lydia
Yeah, I mean, that’s because that’s where people typically want to be. They want that good view. lagree Street, I will have to say though, it was one of my favorite streets in downtown Charleston, if you’re looking for a beautiful place just to stroll and see some amazing homes. That is a really good street. Along with church, great church St is awesome, too. I mean, that really, it narrows and it’s like very, there’s a lot of brick, when you click get closer to the, to the battery to White Point gardens. And it really feels like you’re walking through the streets of Europe. And it just makes you feel like you’re in a different time and place. You know, and I love that about it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so we do still have some cobblestone streets in Charleston.

Lydia
We do. There are a few charmer Street, which is in between broad and Market Street. The cobblestone is not native to this area, it was actually ballast that came in off the ships coming over from England. So they would come here to pick up goods like rice, indigo, cotton, those things, so they would unload all this ballast that they you know, had to weigh out down the ships coming over here and they would unload it and then load up the goods to go back to England. So that’s where that cobblestone comes from originally.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh my gosh, I want to know that another interesting fact. There’s a lot of it. So there is the the City Market, which some people call the slave market or whatever. Can you please elaborate on that? Absolutely. There

Lydia
is no difference and guess what it would be called the slave market then from a farmers market now we all are aware that slaves were bought and sold here in Charleston, but never in that market. They ran it just like a farmer farmer what it was it was a you know, the vegetables, seafood, the main building, if you look on Market Hall, which sits right on meeting St. If you look on the freeze, you’ll see ran heads and Bullheads that was the meat market. Oh, so that’s where you went to get your meat in. And then you had several buildings, you know, they kept it separate. So you had meat one building seafood, vegetables and whatever else. Back then it was, you know, Market Street, North and South was dirt, sand, oyster shell. And basically they would throw scraps right on the streets. So vultures would come into the city and eat up the scraps I mean, the majority of things they use back in those days they used all parts of the animal I know not a lot went to waste but anything that dead or anything that was rancid or they just out in the streets in the in the turkey buzzards would get them and we actually started calling them Charleston’s majestic Eagles because they were basically our sanitize, you know or like our sanitary. What’s the word?

Lisa RichartHernandez
Sanitize? Yeah, well,

Lydia
yeah, they, I mean, they came through and they cleaned our streets to be cleaned up the streets. They were street sweepers. And there were actually signs in the market saying that you will be fined if you’re caught manhandling, like kicking out them or back then they actually used the word molest, but back then it was you know, that was different meant it had a different meaning. But yeah, man handling, you would get a fine because they were basically employees of the city. They were taking care of those vultures.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow. I love all your tidbits of like, really cool history stuff. I bet you’re an amazing tour guide when you did.

Lydia
I hope so. I hope people enjoyed it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Tell us about downtown. We’ve got some museums. What if people want to see more of the history? Tell us tell us a little bit about what you know what that did you go visit any of the museums when you were a tour guide?

Lydia
I did. We definitely did. We really into the house museums. Those were super fun. Like I mentioned earlier. There’s also the Museum of Natural History where you can see the Hunley Well, a replica of the Hunley which is right out front. And it was the first submarine that actually successfully sunk an enemy ship happened right here in Charleston first in history. They eventually sunk themselves, which is very sad. But yeah, it was the first submarine. And so you can see that which is cool.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So they raised the Hunley from the Charleston Harbor. Well, since I’ve lived here in the past 25 years, they got fairly new, and has its that has its own place

Lydia
in North Charleston. Yeah, there’s a museum in North Charleston, that’s where they actually have the actual Henley itself.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It was so small, it was way smaller than like, today’s summer.

Lydia
It was very, very small. And it was had to be manned by very short men. And the only light they had in there were candles. Could you imagine how hot it would have been and you know, just and Just the thought of how brave they were to do that, within probably knowing that they might not survive it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow. Yeah. How many men were in there was only like four or six? I think it was around six. Yeah, it was five or six or any. Yeah. Speaking of ships, we also have the Yorktown, which is an aircraft carrier that’s basically beached on the dock at Cedric’s point in Mount Pleasant, which is just over the bridge on the other side of the harbor from downtown Charleston. But that’s also kind of part of Charleston’s history, right. And yeah, World

Lydia
War two aircraft carrier that you can definitely go tour through and check out it’s very interesting. I haven’t been there since I was a kid. That was kind of fun stuff that you would do on field trips growing up in Charleston. So

Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah, and I think they have Fort Sumter tour that goes on there too. So it’s kind of like hit two birds with one stone, you can see the Yorktown right, there’s a submarine there too, that you can go in? Yes. You. I do know, because I have been there. Like in the past more recent, not recently, like yesterday, but getting in and out of that submarine. If it’s hard for you to get around. Not probably somewhere you’d want to take somebody that has any disabilities. I mean, it’s just I’m sure they made it handicap accessible, but it’s just not super easy to get around. I was really mean it’s like tight quarters on there basically were. So that’s an interesting tour that people can do. And that made me think of that one, we were talking about The Hunley and in that history there, we’ve also got the aquarium right on the water downtown aquarium

Lydia
is really nice. And there all sorts of little tiny kind of pop in museums that you can find throughout the city. The old powder magazine, which is right there on Cumberland and church, which is really close to the market, like a block away. And that’s where they kept all the city’s gunpowder. And it’s still there. Now and powder. Well know the competitors. You imagine with all the bombardments, we had through all the wars that have happened in Charleston, and it’s one of the oldest 1712 When they’re 1712, you’d think at some point something would

Lisa RichartHernandez
hit it. What’s the what’s the oldest building we have in Charleston? Do you know?

Lydia
Um, well, the oldest home are building his own charmer street that cobblestone street we’re talking about right now. It’s near the market. In 16 1690s, I believe. And you can see these two use on the roof, the tile on the roof, it’s not, you know, normal roofing that you would see. Because what they would take clay, and they would mold it over their thighs. And that’s how they would mold it and then let it dry it. So it’s called thigh tiles. And if you look at this, it’s called the pink house. Now it’s an art gallery. Go in there. And usually the folks that work there have a good bit of detail on the history so you can kind of pick their brains about it. Originally, I think it was a we would call it a gentlemen’s club at 1.0. My god, yeah. Well, you know, Charleston was a city full sailors and town. And by 1710, there was a tavern for not every 10 citizens in Charleston, and then, you know, church on every once every quarter. So as you know, a lot of sending during the weekend, asking forgiveness. So Oh, my God. Well, you know, like I said, I was a port town. That’s kind of how it went back then in the 1700s and 1800s. So I mean, really, up until the mid 1900s, even the Charleston, the area that you know, everyone loved today in the market area wasn’t the most family friendly place. Yeah, you know, like I said, it took us a long time to clean up the city and get it to be what everybody knows and loves about it today.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It’s interesting, because we forget, you know, it’s, I see all the stuff going on with tearing down statues of everything. And we’ve had some of that in Charleston happening also. But people just and especially, I mean, everyone in general, I can’t just generalize as like young people, but we don’t realize the history and the things that we have been through and especially Charleston as a city. I mean, we’ve talked about the wars and the hurricanes and the things that the community has been through and survived. And I’ve always felt like the people of Charleston are good people. We like when when there’s, when there’s a hurricane, we all come together, everybody helps each other out. I mean, the good in people comes out even when we had privates people were down there first thing in the morning before I could, I mean, I got down there like 930 and it was already almost cleaned up because there was hundreds of people out there just volunteering and working together. And even when we’ve had tragedies where some, you know, idiot came in and shot up a church and killed like six people or whatever, like, we stood together and held hands. So now that we’re going through these challenging times, in our home, country, not to get political or anything like that. Like, I feel happy and good to be a part of a community that I know really comes together and has has defeated so much diversity. And I’m sure there’s other cities in the United States that have been through that also. But I just, I just feel like that’s a really cool thing about Charleston that you kind of don’t get until you’ve lived here. And I’ve only lived there for 25 years I’m what? I’m what they call a damn Yankee. Yeah.

Lydia
Well yeah, we like to pick on people but as long as you’re friendly, we don’t know where you’re from. We just like to see your your Yeah, cuz you are a Damien Yankees coming to visit damn Yankee stay. Oh, that’s right. We will we will convert you right long as you you know, are friendly.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And yes, I guess that’s how I made it. 25 years. I’m friendly.

Lydia
We love having you here at least.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s good. Thank you. I’m looking at my list of other things to talk about for tours that we owe. One thing that isn’t really in downtown Charleston. It was really a lot of them are in West Ashley where I used to live. But did you go on I need the tours of the gardens and plantations because a lot of people ask about that when they’re coming to Charleston. And can you did you touch on those at all? Absolutely.

Lydia
Of course, plantations are gorgeous with oak trees and the sweeping Spanish moss and all that actually worked at Boone Hall Plantation. Which that one’s in Mount Pleasant. It is in Mount Pleasant, and there are two off of Highway 61. Outside going towards Somerville outside of West Ashley. Magnolia is amazing. So beautiful. Now you won’t find the original homes and on either one of those plantations BOONE HALL or Middleton because they were burned down during the Civil War. Drayton Hall is the only house only plantation which is right next to Middleton. And there’s Magnolia out there as well. beautiful gardens. But Drayton Hall, the house is original, because during the Civil War, there was a doctor there had a bunch of soldiers so that they were quarantined, because they speaking of quarantining, because of some, you know, Z’s it had spread to the Union soldiers didn’t want to go near it. So that is the only reason why they didn’t burn it down.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So Oh, that’s interesting.

Lydia
Mm hmm. But now, Boone Hall, you do see some of the original slave cabins, so you can go and actually see how people lived, you know, and where, and I think that’s one of the biggest draws to plantations, I don’t think it’s to, you know, I don’t think it should be a negative thing. I think it should be an educational thing for people,

Lisa RichartHernandez
right? Where we came from, and how far we’ve come.

Lydia
Absolutely. And, you know, I was kind of perturbed with the whole Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, when they got married, there was actually when I was working there. And they apologized Recently, because of all the things that have been going on saying that they felt terrible for getting married on a place where there was slavery and, and, to a certain degree, I understand why they felt the need to apologize. But you know, there are a lot of African Americans that are employed at these places to educate people. And know that could be messing with their livelihood. I personally know people that are just there. They like working there. It’s what they know. And so I feel as though people are looking at the wrong way, you know what I mean? Like, you are not going to learn what you can learn from help from go and visit Boone Hall Plantation from a teacher at high school. That’s right, it’s not going to happen. You want to see the real history and know what it was like for people. And people tell you or descendants from those people tell you about it. I don’t see how you get any more educated than that.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s right. Like, and that’s how else can you have an understanding of what people went through or have empathy for somebody without seeing that annoying the history of it?

Lydia
Absolutely. I mean, there are I mean, one of the ladies, you know, they teach about the Gullah culture, which is very local to are very common and here in the Lowcountry, it’s African American community here. And like the song Kumbaya, everybody knows that song. It’s been sitting around campfires for God knows how long and that is a Gulla song that originated here in the low country, in kumbaya means come by here, my lord. And that is part of the Gullah Gullah language that nobody would know. Unless you came to visit and you got to talk to somebody.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I had no idea. I love all your tidbits of history of religion. So I’ve always wondered that because when I first came here, I worked downtown at home and seafood restaurant, and they employed a lot of Gullah Geechee people. And me, you know, with my Michigan accent, I could barely understand their what they were saying because it’s like sort of a southern i. What is

Lydia
it? Well, it’s basically almost a different language. And the cool thing about it is it was something that they could have for themselves, you know, that necessarily the white folks didn’t understand right back in back in the old days, you know, and still today Stay. I mean, if you grew up here, and you know, we’re all friends and love each other and live together, we all kind of know. Right? You know, I understand. But I mean, I think that that’s something that thing that bothers me is when people start to talk against it. I feel like it almost makes it like it’s sweetgrass baskets part of the Gullah culture, you know, we want that to stay alive. We want them to thrive off of that. Yeah, those are my friends and family that, you know, make a living off of, of that and educating people about themselves. And I think it’s a wonderful thing, and I don’t want it to ever be looked at is a negative thing, necessarily. Like I said, I’m more of an educational thing. Yes. understand all of the, you know, history about it. Right. But, you know, it’s education. And these people, you know, love their culture. Yeah. Awesome.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And it’s a huge part of the Lowcountry.

Lydia
It’s what makes us it was one of the things that makes it unique. Yes,

Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah, I had a I have a client, a friend that just moved here from California. And we were driving down the street, like, driving down the main drag, actually, and just like, I wanted to go get one of those sweetgrass baskets. And I said, Oh, they have a downtown I said, or you’ll see these little wooden sort of Shaq type things on the side of the road on highway 17. On numbers, like, that’s, that’s where they sell the sweetgrass baskets into is like, oh, my gosh, that’s, that’s amazing, you know?

Lydia
Yeah, it’s, it’s amazing, because it is a, you know, can’t tell you how long it goes back through to Africa, because West Africa is where a lot of the slaves were, came from are brought here from and that’s the reason why they brought people from that area is because the same kind of crops grow there that grow here, because the land is very similar. So they knew how to cultivate these crops where the English had no idea. And so a way that they would, when they grew rice, away, they would husk the rice, you know, the husk the rice was they would put it in these baskets, and shake it, and it would de husk that rice. And so that’s where that tradition comes from.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh really the sweetgrass baskets

Lydia
it’s made of sweet grass bulrush all this stuff comes out from the marsh areas here. I mean, even things as people you know, think is so Southern cuisine is like okra, okra came from West Africa. That wasn’t here. But it grows well here, because the land is just similar to like Sierra Leone in that area.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, that’s so interesting. What other fruits and vegetables have been brought in here that weren’t and must be a lot, I suppose.

Lydia
I mean, there’s a good bit of stuff that grows here. But yeah, oh girl is a big one. And then there’s things like crape myrtles that are huge here. That’s an Asian tree, huh? But it grows well here because you know, if you’re on the same, you know, latitude longitude. Even over on the other side of the world, it’s going to be you know, similar.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So temperatures and so Rice was a big crop here.

Lydia
Rice was the number one crop here people originally people mostly think it was cotton. King Cotton didn’t come into play until later on. till late 1700s, early 1800s. Sea Island cotton was the best you could get they grew it out on the barrier islands here like all the palm Solomon’s Island, Folly Beach. Originally, it was rice, Carolina, gold rice, that’s how Charleston made all its money. And it became actually the richest city in the country per capita. Because of the rice cultivation here. Also, indigo, Indigo is a blue dye. That’s what you would see on your blue jeans back then, though, I’m not sure who figured out how to get that blue dye extracted from the Indigo plant, but they used ammonia to do it. Now back in the old days, you’re not going to go down to your corner store and buy a whole bunch of ammonia. So they used urine. Really. So you know, and that’s what they used for Canary carries as well to tan hides. And so, you know, when battle say you don’t have a pot to piss in, because people would really be, you know, take a pot of their urine down to the tannery or where they were extracting indigo dye and they would pay people for it. But if you didn’t have a pot to carry your beads and you don’t have a pocket piston, you’re piss poor.

Lisa RichartHernandez
My god, that is the best one. I’ve heard I’d had no idea about that. Pretty funny. It was pretty funny. I thought he was only good to like, if you got to sting ray biter.

Lydia
Jellyfish No, but like, you know, it makes you think like who figured that one out? You know?

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow, that is such a good story. Oh my gosh, that’s crazy.

Lydia
But yeah, rice and indigo were the main main crops moneymakers for Charleston in there in the early days. Wow. Cotton didn’t come until way later.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow. So let’s say we’ve talked about carriage tours and walking tours, ghost tours, plantation doors, the old jail. The old homes downtown. We talked about the city markets, and house museums and those beautiful homes. And we’ve talked about museums in general. We should also say there’s a lot of really great art galleries downtown. That really doesn’t have to do with history. But it does kind of have to do with drawing. When, when there’s no COVID. We have that Art Walk. That’s really fun. Some people call it the wine walk. But really, it’s an art walk. And all the galleries are open, and they have little munchies. That’s a good, really good, yeah.

Lydia
And it can’t be historic in a certain way. I mean, you do have, like I said, a lot of Gullah Geechee folks down here that are doing their drawings and their paintings of their of their culture and their life. So I mean, you can come and visit with them. And you know, it’s like I said, another way that people express themselves and you know, celebrate their culture and, you know, educate people on it. So I mean, there are some, some, there is some historic value to some of the artwork down here for sure.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. We’ve got lots of shopping downtown, we talked about the Fort Sumter tour in the boat tours. One little tour I didn’t talk about, I should make a mention. My friend owns Charleston boat tours. And they leave out from the Marina Ripley site, Marina over there by California Dreaming. And you can take a drive your own little boat harbor tour of the Yeah, that’s fun. Yeah. Which is really fun. And a good little day to get out on the water. So I’ll put, I’ll put links to all of these in our show notes. We haven’t really talked about golf resorts. That might be a whole conversation for another day. Because we could talk about golf courses in Charleston, I suppose for a long time. But we do have I think, how many golf courses do we have around 818?

Lydia
Yeah, there’s a lot, I mean, in their premier golf courses within the resorts on the islands. And so there’s a lot of good choices. If you’re a big fan of golf.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I’ll get one of our golf experts to talk to us about that. So let’s to wrap this up. Let’s just say, if someone is coming into Charleston, and they only have the weekend to spend, let’s say they have Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they come in on Friday afternoon, and they’re going to stay downtown somewhere in Charleston, what would you recommend as an itinerary to see if you only have that limited amount of time to kind of get your best tour and feel for the Charleston area?

Lydia
Well, I would definitely recommend the carriage store. First and foremost, because if you get a carry story, even if you don’t get in this part of the city, necessarily, you’re going to have somebody who knows the city very well you get this hour long tour, a good bunch of general information, and you kind of get an idea feel for the city of what you’d like to learn more about. Right? So then you can always ask for your tour guide. Okay, I’m kind of interested in this. What would you recommend? I mean, I always say start out with a carriage tour then you figure out what you want to do and then maybe House tours are very cool. If you love the water and you really want to see you know be out there on the port scepters great. But then you know of course there’s all that shopping and the restaurants are insane but I would definitely this should you just mean being a troll stony head and how we have so many good food restaurants go local. Yeah, do not do not eat a chain restaurant. When you’re staying in Charleston.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Well, aside from chain restaurants being very difficult to find that is probably one of the biggest good advice things that you could say because truly, we have so many fabulous fabulous local restaurants. I mean from from just simple like oh casual food to you know, fine dining. Exactly. Yeah. I could just have one I’m gonna have one more podcast on food I’m sure of it. Because it’s actually more than one there’s going to do for sure I can describe so many amazing restaurants. Interestingly, we don’t have a lot of restaurants that are on the water considering the whole place is is surrounded by water.

Lydia
Right there are a couple but you’re right there are a whole lot if you want to be a place for housing Shem Creek is a good option right over the bridge in Mount Pleasant. You get to sit right on the water see the shrimp and boats the all the pelicans and dolphins people paddleboarding. So if you want to kayak paddleboard into that right into the harbor out of out of Shem Creek, so that’s a great option. But you know, a lot of those restaurants in downtown Charleston if you wanted to have that really beautiful view they have rooftop restaurants that you can see the entire area. Yes, you know, so there are even if it’s right not there on the water where you can actually smell the pluff mud, you know. Yeah, and you can get a very good view of one of those rooftop ones.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. I always say if I was coming in on Friday, I would say go over to Mount Pleasant take an Uber or whatever. Go sit on Shem Creek have dinner outside there. Watch the dolphins Wim and, and then on Saturday, I would wake up in the morning and do a carriage tour. And then spend the afternoon shopping walking down King Street. I mean, that could be an all day event and Market Street and go through the market have lunch somewhere. And then I do my favorite thing for us to do downtown is to just restaurant hop. That’s where we just go yeah, have a cocktail and appetizer. Yeah, like I can barely get two blocks without being completely stuffed. And then on Sunday morning, I would do like jazz brunch at halls. And then maybe take a little ride out to the beach out like Folly Beach and get a view from of our beaches and the ocean and absolutely, Folly Beach is super fun. So yeah, they’ve got like a whole little downtown area and stuff. And we’ll go into go on our other podcasts more in detail but each one of these areas so you can kind of pick and choose there are podcasts as we continue to record more and give you more information to share

Lydia
in the market is definitely a place to go if you’re if you want to shop local to buy you know artesian that make things you know local folks making things you know like sweetgrass baskets and all that that is market is the place to go. Yeah, for sure. I have a lot of wonderful friends that you know, work really hard. And you know, they’re it’s it’s a lot of fun.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, as a matter of fact, we have the Farmers Market in Marion Square on Saturday mornings to when there’s no COVID That’s a fun thing to do. You could go to jazz brunch at Hall a halls and or no. Saturday morning, you could do your carriage ride, go shopping, stop at the farmers market. Have some grapes, my love those grapes, that great, great food truck is my favorite. Yeah. Yeah, yes. Notice how everything always leads back to food with me and like, Oh, yeah. And then you can eat this there. You know, like set it

Lydia
is Charleston, you can’t go wrong. That’s right. You know, throw a rock into your head and good restaurant. That’s right. Every direction you throw it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s true. Even even like touring the campus of the College of Charleston and going over to the Citadel. We didn’t even really touch on those as like a tourist kind of a thing to do. But they are kind of sort of tourist sites. I mean, the college Charleston campus is beautiful. And I think there’s been movies filmed

Lydia
there. Oh, yeah. The Patriot Cold Mountain is the oldest municipal college in the country. 1770 is when it started, got it started. So there’s a lot of historic value to the college itself. And that main building, Randolph hall with a sister and that’s what you see in all the movies. So it’s a it’s a beautiful campus. And that’s where my sister had her wedding pictures taken. It was really awesome. turned out great. And but yeah, I mean, there’s so much so much students, and we could go on and on and on all day.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I know. We didn’t even talk about the the cemeteries downtown that are. That’s on Church Street right there.

Lydia
Yeah. I mean, there’s the St. Michael’s St. Philip’s circular Congregational Church, which is right next to that has the oldest graveyard, grave sites in the city.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And who are some of the famous people that are buried in these graveyards?

Lydia
Well, there is at Rutledge, who’s buried in St. Philip’s, he was a signer of the Declaration. So there’s all kinds of I mean, you could go on and on and on. There’s the cool thing about the circular Congregational Church, which is right there on Cumberland and eating Street. Originally, it was known as the meeting house, because we had freedom of religion in Charleston in the beginning. So when they were first building things, they just built this meeting house. So whatever religion you were, you have a time you could come worship in this in this building. And that’s where meeting Street got its name from the meeting house right there on the corner of meeting and Cumberland. But that’s why the graves there are so old are from just the 16, late 1600s. And you can see them today, and they have open door policies at all the churches, so if you wanted to just pop in and kind of look around, if the doors are open, you’re welcome to do so for free.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Wow, that’s it. Yeah. I mean, I haven’t done that in so long. But I definitely did that when we first moved here. And just, you can just wander around downtown aimlessly and run and just get

Lydia
lost in the ghetto. Yeah, yeah. Like it’s almost, you know, like I said, being in a different place in time and in certain areas.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. So, alright, well, I think that’s, I think we’ve covered a lot of stuff today. And I want to tell you, so from a real estate standpoint, you know, I own view properties, real estate, here in Charleston, been in the real estate business for 15 years. And why don’t we have buyers for downtown Charleston, because it’s difficult to park downtown. A lot of times, especially when you’re showing properties. I I love to send Lydia out as as the driver to drop off with the agents. And she’s getting her license, hopefully soon to be able to do even more. But it’s like having a tour guide show for to show you all the beautiful historic homes downtown. So if you or anyone you know is looking to purchase a home in Charleston or move to the area. That’s an added perk that we throw in for free and you get all of Lydia’s amazing information, which is awesome. So if you want any more information you can email us at [email protected]. It’s info @ LisaRichart li sa ri CH, AR T as in tom .com and Lydia will be there to answer any questions or if you want tips or advice or any questions about the history of Charleston are happy to share it with you. And she’s been a native here for her whole life and her whole family has and yeah, she’s got all the she’s got all the dirt, and I can’t wait to hear more of her interesting stories. I’m gonna have to pick her brain. So as they come up, I’ll share them with you as well and hopefully wherever as a guest again sometime soon. Thanks so much, Lydia.

Lydia
Thank you for having me.

Lisa RichartHernandez
All right,

Lydia
It’s blast.

Outro
Thanks for listening to another episode of living in Charleston podcast. We hope you’re inspired to come back. Grab yourself a pool iced tea, and listen to the next episode. Don’t forget to share this with your friends, like comment and feel free to reach out directly to Lisa at LivinginCharlestonPodcast.com. If you have any questions about the area, looking to move, or wants to be in our next episode.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai