Monday, April 16th, 

 Guess the time just got away from me last night. Got involved on a computer project and before I knew it, it was two in the morning and time to get some sleep. As it turned out, there wasn't all that much that happened yesterday to talk about anyway.

   I went south in the morning and ended up in the town of Beaufort, SC. A nice little town in the lowlands of the state that is probably more well known for the Parris Island Marine base that is in the area. Wandered around the old part of town for a couple of hours, caught a bite to eat at a little cafe down there and just spent a pleasant afternoon. Wonderful country all along the drive down and back. Lot's of salt marsh, a few great looking swamps and some small planted fields. It was interesting to see sweet corn that was already knee high in a few fields.

   Came back and spent some time dealing with some routine computer issue's. Backing up stuff, creating new emergency disks and such. Nothing hard about any of it, just takes a lot of time once in awhile. Did take a short break and watched an old movie, 'American Graffieti', on the computer. Hadn't seen it for maybe 30 years and it was still fun to see all the movie stars that were in it that I kind of grew up watching. And while it was set about 10 years earlier than I was in high school, it still reminded me of a lot of the things that were going on when I was 17-18 years old. Fun!!!

    Here are a few pictures of houses and other buildings I saw while I was wandering around downtown Charleston the other day.

Seems like most of the regular homes in the downtown area of Charleston were similar in form to this one. A basic 'Shotgun' style arrangement where the house has all the rooms arranged in a row from front to back leaving a very narrow footprint. I thought at first that this type of arrangement might be because of a lack of room and that this was a way of cramming a lot of houses into a very small area. But a friend of mine set me straight by telling me that most of these homes were originally built and owned by recent immigrants from England where they were accustomed to having what was known as a 'window tax' assessed on their property. Essentially a tax based on the number of windows that fronted on the main road, and therefore loosely associated with the frontage width of the building. The narrower the frontage, the fewer the windows, thou not in this case, and the less tax owed..... And I just thought it looked like a neat house.  

Another version of the 1st house, this one showing the multiple stories they often have. Most all of the homes had some sort of privacy gate or door that opened onto the 1st floor porch. Many would also have full length privacy curtains for each or the porches. That way, in the heat of the summer when temps and humidity were high you could drag your bed out onto the porch and sleep out there where it was generally a bit cooler.

Not sure what this building was originally, I just liked the looks of it with the arched front and all the stone and masonry details. It also looked like it had some wonderful stain glass windows.

Another similar house to the first two, this one is a little wider and it has a different front detail with the bowed porch. This one is located much closer to the bay which is where the wealthier people would of had their houses in order to take advantage of the breeze's off the bay. I love all the pastel colors these house's and buildings are painted.

One of the many large churches in the downtown area. Charleston was noted for it's religious tolerance and the many differant religion's that had a presence in the area thereby earning the city it's nickname of 'The Holy City'. One other interesting historical tidbit is that there are no lofty skyscraper type buildings anywhere in downtown Charleston because of a city ordinance written long ago that stipulated that no other building could be built that was taller than the highest church in the city at that time. Therefor the tallest non-church building there is now a couple feet shorter than the top of the tallest church steeple in the city.

This one is a little bit different, more along the lines of a conventional house but still showing some great southern details, a little brick, a bay, columned porches. A really nice looking home that is probably well over a hundred years old.

Another style seemed to be this one which is common down here in the south. Don't know what the style is called but it is noted by having a central entry way and hall that usually runs from the front all the way through to the back of the house. The main stairway is then located in this space with all the rooms branching off to both sides. With warm humid weather the doors and windows on either side could be opened for some good cross ventilation in the days before AC.

This house was just 'cute'. Kind of reminded me of a boat for some reason with it's hurricane shutters opened up like they were. A very nice color scheme too.

One of the business streets downtown where a series of row houses have been converted into small shops.

Another one of the churches downtown. This one isn't so tall, but it had some interesting ornamentation on it. My friend Max might have something interesting to say about the number and size of all the spire's on the roof.

Not sure why this building appealed to me other than it looked to be very old and I liked the top ornamentation on the chimneys. Looks like a good old sea port building, as if ships captains and crew might stay there while in port.