Charleston Homes: Part 1. Iron Gates

Ok faithful followers and lovers of Charleston, I am back from a blogging hiatus. Apologies for depriving the world of all things Charleston. The history, the art, the homes for sale, the local happenings, and the world renown culinary delights that call Charleston home.

I want to take this time to go back to the basics. This blog is a means to share with the world all the reasons the Charlestonians call Charleston, South Carolina home, and why you should too. It has its fun moments, , where we talk about crazy weather (Click HERE to see great pictures for a recent rainfall), local events, and fabulous new restaurants, and we have our more informative times when you get an inside look at the beauty of the homes in Charleston that are for sale and could be yours.

Since a large portion of this blog is dedicated to a higher form a Real Estate, we are going to take the next few blogs to talk about some of the special things that make Charleston homes unique. Whether you are looking for your dream Lowcountry home, or looking for ways to improve the one you already have, here are the Charleston homes “must haves’!

Part 1. The Classic Iron Gates

You will find that there are many things that contribute to the ideal Charleston home. If your mind just blew because you couldn’t decided what type of Charleston home you wanted to picture in your mind just then, its ok, we will get to all that. In fact, there are many lucky styles of houses that get to name themselves “Charleston” or “Charlestonian” or even just “Lowcountry”. One thing is for certain however, there is only one type of gate, and that is the Charleston Iron Gate.

(How you should  view a Charleston home, thru an iron gate)

Philip Simmons, perhaps Charleston’s best and most renown Gate designer and blacksmith, has made over 500 gates in his lifetime. Visit his website HERE!

“Philip Simmons is a poet of ironwork. His ability to endow raw iron with pure lyricism is known and admired throughout, not only in South Carolina, but as evidenced by his many honors and awards, he is recognized in all of America.”
-John Paul Huguley
Founder, School of the Building Arts (now the American College of the Building Arts)

Many of these beautiful gates are surrounded by iron fences, often topped with delightful little spikes, historically meant to keep out intruders. Not all gates are attached to such fences, others are set between stone archways as the entrance to a driveway, or with white picket fences (as with my own house).

Feel free to make the gate to your home personal to you.   A friend of mine had a gate made for her with vines and a giant “P” in the center.  Some gates are simple and other intrecate, but all are specail and unique to Charleston.  If you have any pictures of an iron gate at your home, or just one you admire, please post it to this blog!  Share the love with our other readers!

Here are some of my favorites:

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Charleston’s Quirky Weather : Flooding – Part 2. The Follow-Up

Yesterday’s Post was my busiest ever!  So I wanted to get back online and post a few more pictures that turned up throughout the day via facebook.  If you didn’t believe me when I said that people got really into the whole flooding thing, here is the proof, and it was all smiles!  Everyone turned out and had fun with the whole day, and made some lemonade out of lemons!  Enjoy the pictures!

Thank goodness someone was able to incorporate these Sweetgrass baskets into the picture! That picture was taken inside the outside market on Market Street

These two kayakers are going down in Charleston history!  Every photo of them went viral on facebook within the hour! 

There is a video on YouTube showing this person wakeboarding thru Charleston! Watch here!

This is the outside of the market on Market Street.  (Market Street is between East Bay Street and Meeting Street. Is is the center of Downtown.  There are many restaurants on Market and surrounding, including Kaminsky’s Dessert Cafe, Tbonz Steak House, Penninsula Grill, Grill 225, AW Shucks, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Wild Wings, Hanks Seafood, Hymans, Toast, Tommy Condons Irish Pub, Wasabi, Fleet Landing, Mercato Italian Restaurant, and more!  Charleston has the best culinary selections!)

Credit goes Corey Dowds for the picture via Facebook! He was in the right place at the right time.

So again, even though it hardly ever floods in Charleston, when it does, don’t panic.  Just have fun with, like the Charlestonions do!

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Charleston’s Quirky Weather: Part 1, Flooding

As I sit here at work,  I was considering doing this next blog on a local artist, or perhaps a fun home improvement project. However,  as I slowly watched the streets flood, and a pair of kayaker’s float down the middle of Market Street (going the wrong way down a one way street I might add) I knew what to blog about instead.  Oh Charleston, why oh why must you flood at the slightest hint at rain? As a native to Charleston, this is no big surprise, and I actually get a kick out of the whole ordeal. Its fun to watch outside chairs and tables floating down the street while avid kayakers try to weave in and out. All the tourist seem to enjoy the unexpected entertainment as well. Camera’s flashing and future YouTube videos being born signal that everyone is settling down to wait out the storm.

(The Market on Market Street)

While working Downtown Charleston for the past few years, I have seen this phenomenon happen a few times.  The flooding in Charleston is caused by heavy rainfall combined with the high tide and a special thanks to Charleston’s drainage system. The rain comes down, the high tide comes in which leaves the pipes just no where to go.

***Spoiler Alert: When the rain stops, the flooding goes down, so don’t panic! It will only last an hour or so tops.***

I recommend finding a dry spot at the first sign of flooding in Downtown Charleston.  Go ahead a get food before the restaurants have to shut down their kitchens due to the flooding, and get your camera ready.  Make a game out of it, count how many cars try to drive thru the water (something I DO NOT recommend doing BTW) how many kayakers you see, and how many people try to brave the sometimes knee deep water!

And again, don’t worry.  The sun will be back out before you know it in Charleston! So enjoy the flood, and when its over, enjoy the rest of your day!

For more info on flooding in Charleston, here are some sites you can visit.

City of Charleston Website: Flood Zones

Kayaker Downtown Charleston

Kayak Rentals and Tours

*Also, a special thanks to unknown individuals for the pictures I found of Charleston on Google!*

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