(click on pics to enlarge)
I will apologize out of the gate (with a picture of one!) for not having detailed records of each photo's information. Some I remember, and some I took because they looked neat. More often than not, I like to focus in on smaller areas, details, and textures, hence a real hodge podge for you today.
I'll start with my observation of how tight most buildable space was...this half-address gate led down a very narrow alley to a very small tenement squeezed in toward the back of the buildings around it. Not for the claustrophobic, I might add, especially with the plants taking up more room than the narrow stone walkway...
While walking a little on King Street, I started doing double-takes on some store fronts. What would normally be a narrow alley inbetween buildings has been retrofitted with a door, stairwells, and very limited landings. More than likely they also had entrances to the other buildings, but I'm not so sure I wouldn't have to turn my shoulders sideways to get up some of these ribbony entrances...
Everywhere you turn you see myriad architectural details of interest. There is plenty of ironwork to be found, and rather reminiscent of what I saw in New Orleans. The decorative gate top below has a very common motif seen around the city: a lyre. It's at the top center (note vertical 'strings')...
I showed a picture of Market Hall in Monday's post; this ornate railing is part of its south side portico. and I rather like the historically preserved color as opposed to going basic black...
This impressive colonial eagle is far more 3-dimensional than most building adornments. The artist definitely had a lot of talon...
Quite numerous were the variations on transoms. In our day and age of mass-production and slam-em-up building, you begin to appreciate the effort and planning these custom works took to complete.
While there are many architectural styles in the city, there does seem to be a great deal of Greek Revival designs, this being a more simple expression. FYI, the Monday's post showed the glorious Greek Revival mansion I shot down near the Battery...
Lots of custom entrance work on the substantial block building below...
There were so many beautiful churches in close proximity to each other that I can't pull this particular one's door out of my memory bank here at 1:12am...I will admit that part of me looked at these monstrous, thick doors of what looked to be Cypress, calculating how many flutes I could get out of 'em...
I think what I love about cars from the 50s, especially, was that they each had a highly distinctive style and color palate...and in Charleston there is a great architectual design diversity as opposed to the cookie-cutter same-ness we see so much of today. Lots of colors, too, like this pale pink beauty framed with sweeping stairs...
As mentioned already, Greek Revival is alive and well...and I was hard at work dusting off my college knowledge on the differences between Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, and...uh...I didn't get very far down that memory lane. It's Greek to me, especially after all these years...
I do remember this upper dormer of sorts (below) is from one of the newer buildings, The Charles Drayton House, ca. 1885. It's a lovely Victorian mansion with an eclectic blend of Chineese and Medieval European architectural styles...and an owl decoy.
I did not have a good weekend knee-wise, as one had seriously flared up the week before...but in having to walk more slowly on the uneven slate sidewalks and the occasional cobblestone side streets, I got to marvel even more at the textures of this rich city...
You can well imagine there are antique stores galore throughout the city, some big, some small, some fancy, some more plain, all way too expensive for me. But one particular sign at a darkened antique store caught my eye:
Now THAT'S my kind of working hours!
Happy Hump Day, y'all! Tomorrow, I think I'll take you to some Charleston graveyards where there was a whole lot o' shakin' going on at one time...
I will apologize out of the gate (with a picture of one!) for not having detailed records of each photo's information. Some I remember, and some I took because they looked neat. More often than not, I like to focus in on smaller areas, details, and textures, hence a real hodge podge for you today.
I'll start with my observation of how tight most buildable space was...this half-address gate led down a very narrow alley to a very small tenement squeezed in toward the back of the buildings around it. Not for the claustrophobic, I might add, especially with the plants taking up more room than the narrow stone walkway...
While walking a little on King Street, I started doing double-takes on some store fronts. What would normally be a narrow alley inbetween buildings has been retrofitted with a door, stairwells, and very limited landings. More than likely they also had entrances to the other buildings, but I'm not so sure I wouldn't have to turn my shoulders sideways to get up some of these ribbony entrances...
Everywhere you turn you see myriad architectural details of interest. There is plenty of ironwork to be found, and rather reminiscent of what I saw in New Orleans. The decorative gate top below has a very common motif seen around the city: a lyre. It's at the top center (note vertical 'strings')...
I showed a picture of Market Hall in Monday's post; this ornate railing is part of its south side portico. and I rather like the historically preserved color as opposed to going basic black...
This impressive colonial eagle is far more 3-dimensional than most building adornments. The artist definitely had a lot of talon...
Quite numerous were the variations on transoms. In our day and age of mass-production and slam-em-up building, you begin to appreciate the effort and planning these custom works took to complete.
While there are many architectural styles in the city, there does seem to be a great deal of Greek Revival designs, this being a more simple expression. FYI, the Monday's post showed the glorious Greek Revival mansion I shot down near the Battery...
Lots of custom entrance work on the substantial block building below...
There were so many beautiful churches in close proximity to each other that I can't pull this particular one's door out of my memory bank here at 1:12am...I will admit that part of me looked at these monstrous, thick doors of what looked to be Cypress, calculating how many flutes I could get out of 'em...
I think what I love about cars from the 50s, especially, was that they each had a highly distinctive style and color palate...and in Charleston there is a great architectual design diversity as opposed to the cookie-cutter same-ness we see so much of today. Lots of colors, too, like this pale pink beauty framed with sweeping stairs...
As mentioned already, Greek Revival is alive and well...and I was hard at work dusting off my college knowledge on the differences between Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, and...uh...I didn't get very far down that memory lane. It's Greek to me, especially after all these years...
I do remember this upper dormer of sorts (below) is from one of the newer buildings, The Charles Drayton House, ca. 1885. It's a lovely Victorian mansion with an eclectic blend of Chineese and Medieval European architectural styles...and an owl decoy.
I did not have a good weekend knee-wise, as one had seriously flared up the week before...but in having to walk more slowly on the uneven slate sidewalks and the occasional cobblestone side streets, I got to marvel even more at the textures of this rich city...
You can well imagine there are antique stores galore throughout the city, some big, some small, some fancy, some more plain, all way too expensive for me. But one particular sign at a darkened antique store caught my eye:
Now THAT'S my kind of working hours!Happy Hump Day, y'all! Tomorrow, I think I'll take you to some Charleston graveyards where there was a whole lot o' shakin' going on at one time...
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