This large park was named for Revolutionary War Hero Francis Marion, and has a variety of monuments and memorials, and even an original part of colonial fortifications. The surrounding cityscape is breathtaking, and an area where dirigibles flew in 1909 has a multi-steepled skyline, featuring the city’s highest spire at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, one of its oldest in Second Presbyterian Church, and one of its most beloved in Emanuel AME Church.

This week, we visit a public building that has undergone extensive renovation within the last several years and is now open to the public again -- the Fireproof Building inside Washington Park. The street address and entrance to the museum is 100 Meeting Street.

Completed around 1827, this building is remarkable for several reasons. It was built to be fireproof, using ironwork, brick covered with stucco, and other nonflammable materials inside.

This week we go back near the tip of the Charleston peninsula to visit 39 South Battery, one of my favorite examples of a single house (one room wide, two rooms deep). In fact, I painted a watercolor of this house many years ago and reproduced it as my first offset lithograph limited edition.

Located one street behind Murray Boulevard and the low battery wall...

When You Feel Something is Not Right

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This week we visit 34 Chapel Street constructed in 1840 using elements of both the Greek Revival and Gothic Revival styles. 34 Chapel is 6,500 square feet and rises above its neighboring structures; the distinctive double bowed piazzas in front are part of what makes this house a “show stopper” on Chapel Street.

34 Chapel was built by a member of the Toomer family, either Dr. Anthony Vanderhorst Toomer or his son, Dr. Henry Vanderhorst Toomer ...

Since 2005, at historic venues throughout New York and New Jersey, Traveling Literary Theater has been reading Dickens’ own edited version of “A Christmas Carol” to sold-out audiences. Dickens self-published his little ghost story novella “A Christmas Carol” in 1843, but earned little money with the publication. He made a fortune, however, editing the book and reading it in Europe and America as a one-man show. Dickens had the necessary acting chops for the job. Everyone wanted to hear the tale of Scrooge’s change of heart, especially read by the author himself.

This week we visit 10 Judith Street, built in 1814 by John Robinson, the same merchant gentleman who six years later built the Aiken Rhett House at 48 Elizabeth Street. Mr. Robinson, as you may recall, ran into financial problems around 1827 and had to sell most of his properties. 10 Judith is one property Robinson kept; over 6,000 square feet with two and one-half stories over a raised basement, the house is brick covered in stucco with double piazzas topped with a pediment between two dormers. The iron staircase leads to a magnificent main door with a fanlight and sidelights. 10 Judith was a wise choice to keep.

This week we visit 28 Chapel Street in Wraggborough, another Greek Revival home built in Charleston's antebellum period. Over 6,000 square feet, 28 Chapel is two and one-half floors atop a raised basement. A lovely iron double curving staircase gracefully rises to the main piazza and entry with a fanlight above and sidelights on either side of the front door. The main piazza is comprised of Doric fluted columns; the second floor has no piazza but the door also has a fanlight and sidelights. As expected, this door is not as large or as impressive as the main door below. The third floor also has a fanlight in the center of the pediment.

Written by Christian Senger on behalf of ABC News 4.

Actor and Charleston resident Bill Murray is the subject of a new documentary that premieres this month.

This week we visit 20 Charlotte Street in Wraggborough, next door to last week’s post on 16 Charlotte Street built by merchant and planter Robert Martin. Martin built 20 Charlotte in 1848 for his daughter Ellen who married her second cousin, Joseph Aiken.