The Wild Children of the Lowcountry

The cast of the Wild Children call the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina home. In fact, this colorful seacoast city might even be considered a supporting cast member. Located a few hours north from Savannah, Georgia, Charleston is the second largest city in the State of South Carolina. It covers a total area of just over 164 square miles and has a population of 120,083 (2010 Census statistics). It is the county seat of Charleston County and occupies an area from the northern industrial area along the Wando River to much of James Island. Charleston is most famous for its historic downtown area, which is bounded on three sides by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers and Charleston Harbor. Founded in 1670 by English settlers, the city was the focal point of both the Revoluntionary War and the Civil War. This charming Southern city is also known for the dozens of historic churches that dot the city (which is why it is sometimes called the Holy City) and is a haven for the visual and performing arts with many museums and theaters and even a festival dedicated to the arts called Spoleto. The friendly population welcomes visitors with creative restaurant menus, many made up of the bounty of the nearby ocean and dozens of attractions that appeal to all ages from the South Carolina Aquarium to Fort Sumter .
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Some interesting Charleston facts

 

• Charleston's original name was Charles Towne when the city was founded in 1670. It was named after Charles II of England.

 

• Befitting the characters' names of Brennan, O'Callaghan, and Flanagan, Charleston boasts a historic population of people of Irish descent, many of whom can trace their lineages back to the founding of the original Charles Towne settlement in 1670. One of those first Irish settlers was named Captain Florence O' Sullivan, from whom nearby Sullivan's Island take its name.

 

• Charleston, SC has a long history for religious tolerance since its founding. For example, it was one of the first cities in the Southern Colonies that allowed Jewish congregations to practice their faith without restriction. The city is also the seat for the local Roman Catholic diocese and the South Carolina Episcopal diocese. This legacy of tolerance lives on in the variety of churches and synagogues that line the low-rise skyline of Charleston and what gives the city the nickname, the Holy City. There are an estimated 300 active congregations in the Downtown area alone, many of them ministering out of recognized historic landmark buildings.

 

• Until 1973, the tallest building in Charleston and South Carolina was, in fact, a church. Dedicated in 1872, St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church was, for many years the tallest building in South Carolina until the completion of The Tower at 1301 Gervais, which is located in the state capital of Columbia. It still holds the record as the tallest church steeple in the Palmetto State and the City of Charleston. Certified by an engineering class from The Citadel, the steeple towers over 255 feet, 7-5/8 inches above sea level, dominating the Charleston landscape.

 

• During the beginnings of the Revolutionary War, British warships, under the command of Commodore Sir Peter Parker, attacked the incomplete palmetto log fortification on Sullivan's Island on June 28, 1776. In a ferocious nine-hour melee, shore batteries, commanded by Col. William Moultrie successfully repelled the ships. This pivotal battle was instrumental in delaying the British occupation of Charleston until 1780. To honor the fort commander's victory, the post was given the name Fort Moultrie.

 

• On April 12, 1861, artillery forces, loyal to the newly forming Confederate States of America and the State of South Carolina, fired on the Union garrison on Fort Sumter, which was built on an island in Charleston Harbor. This was the first military action of the Civil War. Many tourists that charter Rian Flanagan's Longbow Charter Boat to cruise around the old island fortress.

 

• In 1886, what is known as an intraplate earthquake occurred in the Lowcountry. The epicenter was slightly northwest of Charleston and measured a magnitude 7.3 on the Richter Scale. The powerful tremor severly damaged or destroyed many buildings in Downtown. Railroad tracks were twisted out of shape, cracks, some as wide as three feet opened up, and geysers of sand (known as sandblows) burst forth from the ground as the earth shook underneath. Sixty people were killed in the tremor. The quake was felt locally in towns such as Jedburg and Summerville.  Charleston took the brunt of much of the tremor. The jolt was felt in locations as far away as New Orleans, Boston, Milwaukee, and The Bahamas. As the quake did not occur on a typical fault line like quakes in places like California, the reasons why such an event would happen are still a mystery. Even after over a 100 years since the tremor, scientists still study this event. On many of the older buildings in Downtown, one can see the masterfully forged "earthquake bolts", which were placed into the structures from one end to the other in order to reinforce them.  In typical Charleston style, these bolts were formed into beautiful artistic objects, lovely to look at, yet functional.

 

• In 1989, Hurricane Hugo, a powerful Category 4 hurricane made landfall between Sullivan's Island and Charleston Harbor, damaging much of Downtown Charleston and killing many people from Florida to North Carolina.

 

• Charleston, SC has been the setting of many a good tale on film, video, or the stage. The out-of-studio scenes in the popular Nick Jr. series, Gullah Gullah Island (1994 to 1997) were shot in locations in the Lowcountry including Downtown Charleston, Fripp Island, and Beaufort. The American Opera, Porgy and Bess (music written by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin) takes place in a city resembling Charleston. Other movies and TV shows that have shot in Charleston include Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Cold Mountain, North & South, and Army Wives. Another recent film that has a strong Lowcountry connection was Roland Emmerich's The Patriot (starring Mel Gibson). The cast and crew shot outdoor scenes all over the Charleston-North Charleston Urban area ranging from The College of Charleston to Moncks Corner to Middletown Place (Charleston) to Botany Bay Plantation (Edisto Beach) even up north along Route 17 to Georgetown, SC near Myrtle Beach.

 

• Charlestonians are passionate about the arts. One of the first American theaters was founded in Charleston, The Dock Street Theatre. The house company is Charleston Stage.

 

• Charleston's sister city is Spoleto in the Umbria region of Italy.

 

• C. B.'s all-time favorite author is Edgar Allan Poe, and the wolf boy thought he knew everything about the author until he found out that the writer spent some time in the Charleston area. Before Poe started his career as an author, poet, and literary critic, he was a soldier in the U. S. Army, stationed at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, SC. According to records, Poe was an exemplary soldier. He was twice promoted during his short time on the post. He was even lauded by a fellow soldier from Fortress Monroe in Hampton, VA, saying he was "highly worthy of confidence". Poe's Tavern, a rustic tavern and restaurant located on Middle Street in Sullivan's Island is dedicated to this author's stay on the barrier island.

 

• In 1743, one of the first organized games of Golf in the U. S. was played in Charleston, SC. In 1786, a golf club formed in the Holy City according to some records from the period.

 

• The first museum opened in the United States was in Charleston, SC. The Charleston Museum as it was simply called, was founded in 1773 by the Charleston Library Society and opened to public viewing in 1824. Much of the original collection was destroyed by fire in 1778 and collecting for the museum was halted during the American Revolution, but it resumed in earnest in the 1790's. The inspiration for the facility comes from The British Museum, and its collection has been lauded as one of the finest in the United States. Aside from being dedicated to exhibiting historical and scientific artifacts from the Lowcountry and preserving two historic homes, it also houses a variety of exhibitions from the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War to a large collection of artifacts from ancient Egypt.

 

• The Arthur J. Ravenel Bridge, that spans the Cooper River and connects Mount Pleasant, SC to Charleston is the United States' largest cable-stayed bridge. At night, the bridge's lighting system makes the span resemble a mighty sailing ship of old. C. B.'s favorite radio station, The Bridge uses the Ravenel Bridge in their logo. The Ravenel Bridge is set in the background in the photo on the front of Darius Rucker's latest album, Charleston, SC, 1966.  Country singer, Rucker is a native of Charleston, SC.  The Ravenel Bridge is the subject of many photos and is well-known as a Charleston landmark.

 

• Rory and his family are long-time friends of a friendly and wise elderly, female, Gullah-speaking Marsh Mongoose named Annie. She makes and sells lovingly-crafted sweetgrass baskets in the Downtown Marketplace. Sweetgrass Baskets are now a cherished art form born from a necessity item in the tools of the slaves that used to work Lowcountry rice plantations in Pre-Civil War times. The slaves on these coastal South Carolina and Georgia lands merged their West African culture with the European culture to form a people group called Gullah (also known as Geechee), which is unique to the Lowcountry with a very distinct language (known as Sea Island Creole). One of the trademark artisan skills of the resiliant Gullah was weaving durable work baskets out of tough, fibrous grasses. For over 300 years, the artists used the native South Carolina Sea Island Sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia filipes) by drying it and coiling it into baskets. They wove in Saw Palmetto for durability and added pine needles or bulrush for color. Now this art form, which many in the Charleston area work hard to preserve, is an undeniable part of Lowcountry culture. Not only are these baskets decorative, they are vastly useful due to their strength and craftsmanship, and Charleston natives swear by their quality. Many visitors to Charleston will not leave the city without one of these baskets. They are also sought after by serious collectors and museums, including the Smithsonian. As visitors walk up and down the Charleston City Market in Downtown, it is not uncommon to see these expert crafstwomen surrounded by their woven creations usually hard at work on a new basket. Many of these weavers are carrying on a tradition that has been passed down to them from great-grandmothers to grandmothers to mothers to daughters.

 

• An unusual site just 300 yards off the shore of Folly Beach is the Morris Island Lighthouse. Active as a protective beacon in some form, since the 1700's, the modern tower (built in 1876) once rose from a narrow island between Sullivan's and Folly Islands. Since 1938, constant erosion has whittled away Morris Island, destroying many of the outbuildings and left the lighthouse perched precariously out in the middle of the water just offshore of Folly Beach. It is threatened to be finally carried away by the buffeting waves that stole away the land from underneath it. Intense preservation efforts are now being pursued to protect this landmark for future generations. Folly Beach and Morris Island Light are some of C. B.'s favorite places to fish.

 

• The College of Charleston, which takes up many areas of Downtown, is the 13th oldest higher education institution in the United States. Brianna O'Callaghan wants to attend the C of C when she graduates from high school.

 

• The Gaillard Center, which has hosted many shows including Spoleto performances and The Nutcracker by The Charleston Ballet Theatre, is now an archaeological site. The theater was undergoing a major renovation. During the first phases of the new project, workers discovered thirty-seven graves containing human remains, many dating back possibly to the early to mid-1700's. A cannonball was also unearthed that may have been used during the Revolutionary War. The theater's refurbishment project will go on as planned while historians and anthropologists study the burial sites. More information can be found here.

 

~Patrick Robbins

 

Some sources for the above information include the City of Charleston web site, Internet Movie Database, National Park Service, South Carolina Irish Historical Society, Spoleto USA, South Carolina Film Commission, Thinkquest, The College of Charleston, The Edgar Allan Poe Museum of Richmond, VA, United States Geological Survey, The Folly Surf Cam, Poe's Tavern and Restaurant, Tambela.com, and Wikipedia.

 

Charleston, SC plays a significant role in these tales; therefore, many places mentioned in these stories are real locations in Charleston and Charleston County, SC. Some places have been fictionalized or completely created by the author for dramatic effect. Any similarity to a real location is purely coincidental and quite unintentional.

 

Photo credits- Patrick and Kelly Robbins

 

Visit the link below to learn more about Charleston and its attractions.