What you pass on a carriage tour
No carriage in Charleston can promise you a particular house or church, because a city lottery sets each route just before departure. What every ride can offer is a slow hour among streets laid out more than three centuries ago. This guide describes what you may pass and why it matters, so you know what you are looking at whichever zone you draw.
Why the list changes from ride to ride
The City of Charleston divides its historic district into zones, and each carriage is given one by lottery just before it sets out. Palmetto Carriage Works speaks of five zones, and an Old South guide told a reviewer of nine different routes. The point is to keep the carriages from crowding the same few blocks. Nearly every ride starts and ends near the City Market, since all four barns sit within a block or two of it, then heads into the residential streets. Treat everything below as a possibility, never a promise; carriage routes and the city lottery explains the system.
The Market and the people who built the city
The City Market stretches over about four blocks of long sheds, and carriages usually pass it at the start or the finish. It was a food market. It was not a slave market, a common mix-up, and the Old Slave Mart Museum on Chalmers Street tells that separate and painful history. Today the stalls sell crafts, including sweetgrass baskets woven by Gullah artisans.
Those baskets belong to the Gullah Geechee culture of the Lowcountry, carried on by the descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans. Much of the old city you ride through was built by enslaved people, a history that sits behind the merchants and mansions in every zone.
Steeples and the Four Corners of Law
Charleston's nickname, the Holy City, comes from its crowd of steeples and from its early tolerance of different faiths. St. Michael's Episcopal Church, built between 1751 and 1761, is the oldest surviving church building in the city. It stands where Meeting Street crosses Broad Street, the crossing known as the Four Corners of Law.
St. Philip's Church is another landmark that carriage listings name among possible sights. The Circular Congregational Church keeps the oldest graveyard in the city, and on the evening rides it comes with tales of restless spirits that are said to linger among the stones. Haunted and evening carriage rides covers that side of the city.
The Old Exchange and the waterfront
The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon dates from 1771 and turns up on several day and evening routes, its dungeon a fixture of the prisoner tales told after dark. Toward the water, Rainbow Row lines East Bay Street with pastel houses. The colors are newer than the houses, painted on from the 1930s onward.
At the tip of the peninsula, the Battery and White Point Garden look across the harbor. Far out at its mouth sits Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in April 1861. From a carriage the fort is a small shape on the water, if your zone reaches the seafront at all.
A ride that lists the waterfront
Carolina Polo & Carriage Co. names the Battery, Rainbow Row, the Nathaniel Russell House and St. Philip's among the sights its carriages may pass, though a city official still picks each route. An hour from 45 Pinckney Street costs from ~$45, the lowest day-ride price we found.
Houses, piazzas and earthquake bolts
Most of the hour goes by on residential streets, and the houses are the main event. Look for the Charleston single house, one room wide and set sideways to the street, with long porches called piazzas running down one side to catch the breeze. Its front door often opens onto the piazza rather than straight into the house, which puzzles first-time visitors until the guide explains it.
On many walls you may spot round or star-shaped iron plates. They are earthquake bolts, added after the 1886 earthquake damaged much of the city. Between the houses, wrought-iron gates open onto walled gardens, and the slow pace gives you time to peer through. The Nathaniel Russell House, from 1808, is one of the grand addresses that may come up.
The city's story in a few lines
Charleston began in 1670 as Charles Town on the west bank of the Ashley River and moved to the peninsula between the Ashley and the Cooper in 1680. In 1931 the city adopted zoning for an Old and Historic District, which is thought to be one of the first such protections in the country, and it helps explain why so many old buildings still stand. Guides in the Palmetto Guild have passed a city exam to earn their certification, and they fill in the centuries between those dates as you ride.
Seeing the places your carriage missed
If your zone skipped Rainbow Row or the Battery, walk there afterwards, since both lie about 15 minutes on foot from City Market. For a guide on foot, Walks of Charleston's walking tour, from ~$30, reaches City Hall and the Dock Street Theatre among its stops. Its catch is two hours on your feet, which is heavy going in summer. Carriage, walking tour or trolley? compares the options.
Another carriage on another day often draws a different zone. Charleston Carriage Works' residential ride, from ~$50, covers 2–3 miles (3.2–4.8 km) from its stable at 20 Anson Street and lets you visit the horses before or after. It has only a handful of GetYourGuide reviews so far, and one of those riders was sorry to miss Rainbow Row and the big mansions. The lottery applies to every company. Where the carriage tours start places the four barns, and the best time for a carriage ride helps you pick the hour.