1674 Folly Road

Although it’s home to Fort Sumter, where the bloodiest war in the nation’s history began, Charleston is also famed for its elegant houses. These handsome mansions are showcases for the “Charleston style,” a distinctive look that is reminiscent of the West Indies, and for good reason. Before coming to the Carolinas in the late 17th century, many early British colonists first settled on Barbados and other Caribbean islands. In that warm and humid climate they built homes with high ceilings and rooms opening onto broad “piazzas” (porches) at each level to catch sea breezes. As a result, to quote the words of the Duc de La Rochefoucauld, who visited in 1796, “One does not boast in Charleston of having the most beautiful house, but the coolest.”

Preserved through the hard times that followed the Civil War and an array of natural disasters, many of Charleston’s earliest public and private buildings still stand. Thanks to a rigorous preservation movement and strict architectural guidelines, the city’s new structures blend in with the old. In many cases, recycling is the name of the game—antique handmade bricks literally lay the foundation for new homes. But although locals do dwell—on certain literal levels—in the past, the city is very much a town of today.