94 Rutledge Avenue is one of the truly grand houses in Charleston. Built in 1853 by Isaac Jenkins Mikell for his third of four wives, this house is the epitome of a planter's town house. Mikell was a wealthy planter of sea island cotton on Edisto, and I've heard local author Richard Porcher say that there was no finer cotton in the world than the sea island cotton grown on Edisto Island before the Civil War.

70 Tradd Street was built in 1774 by Judge Robert Pringle. It is difficult to see the depth of the house and later piazza due to the high gate in front of the driveway, but the house is on a double lot, ensuring enough property for a long driveway and garden to the side. The bay window, added to the front of the house in the Victorian era, adds to the interest of the street façade of 70 Tradd. As you can see from the photograph, the house invites passersby to stop and look.

At 102 Tradd Street, the two-story wooden house built around 1760, we again meet the Grimke and Fraser families. The first time we ran into them was at 55 King Street, the Grimke-Fraser tenements built around 1762 and later used by artist Charles Fraser as his residence.

Originally owned by Frederick Grimke, who built the tenements at 55 King, 102 Tradd became the home of the Frasers; Grimke's daughter Mary married Alexander Fraser and they lived here with their children. One of their sons, Frederick, scratched part of his name...

106 Tradd is a single house -- but one with a difference. Yes, it's still one room wide, but it is one of the few early residences built with a side hall. As you can see, the front door is not a false door leading to a piazza. This front door opens into the side hall. The typical single house built before 1800 had its main doorway on the side, usually in the center.

The house at 106 Tradd Street was built around 1772 by Colonel John Stuart. Stuart, originally from Scotland, became an important man in Charles Town before the American Revolution; in 1762, he was appointed the King's superintendent...

As we continue exploring Tradd Street, we’ll visit number 126 (next door to the Humphrey Sommers House we visited last week), which was built around 1732 by Alexander Smith. In 1790, Dr. Peter Fayssoux and his wife Ann became owners of the property. Dr. Fayssoux, born in Charles Town, was of French Huguenot heritage; he was one of many Huguenots in Charles Town who rose to prominence and served his city and community well.

Tradd Street spans the width of the peninsula; if there weren't any houses, you could probably stand in the center and see the Ashley River at one end and the Cooper River at the other end. Seeing 128 Tradd and the surrounding area today, it is difficult to imagine that when the house was built in 1765, it would have overlooked a creek and the marshes of the Ashley River.

4 Logan Street is the grand antebellum house between Tradd and Broad Streets. (The Latin "ante bellum" means "before the war"; in Charleston and throughout the South, the word antebellum specifically refers to the period before the Civil War.) Built in 1852, 4 Logan survived the last great Charleston fire in December 1861, which ravaged Charleston almost a year to the date of South Carolina's secession from the Union on December 20, 1860.

69 Meeting Street is one of my favorite houses in Charleston. Dr. John Poyas built this rather grand single house (one room wide, two rooms deep) on a large double lot around 1800.

The house commands our attention for several reasons. First, it stands alone with no close neighbor to the north except...

Built in 1712, the Powder Magazine located at 21 Cumberland Street is the oldest public building still surviving in Charleston. It is also, in my opinion, the most medieval-looking building in Charleston -- a relatively small, thick, stuccoed building with a vaulted roof of pan tiles.

One look at the Powder Magazine and I am transported to an earlier age when Charles Town was one of three walled cities in North America...

54 Hasell Street is perhaps the oldest residence in Charleston – by that I mean the oldest building built specifically as a residence (instead of later being used as one), dating from 1712.  At the time this house was built, it was “in the country”. Colonel William Rhett (and, yes, if Rhett Butler had been real, Col. Rhett would have been “his people”) purchased property outside of the original walled city, about 2 blocks north of Major Daniels’ Creek where the City Market is now situated.  Rhett called his new property of about 30 acres “Rhettsbury”.