See Charleston Through the Eyes Of A Native!!!

Charleston: A Magical History Tour By David A. Farrow

 

I started giving tours 30 years ago. It was a summer job that lasted 22 years.  For ten of those years, I came up with the first bawdy tour, the first ghost tour and five regularly scheduled tours a day.  During that period two of my books, The Root of All Evil and Charleston, S.C.: A Remembrance of things Past were published. Writing was always a passion so tourism took a back seat ten years ago, and the tours stopped completely in 1999. In 2000, I began writing weekly columns (One called “Do You Know Your Charleston?” for six local papers) was managing editor for the Charleston Mercury and produced a video on the War Between the States.. This year I am writing a book called “House Biographies of Charleston: Part I.” The project is slated to be released in early 2009.

For the first time in nine years, I am offering tours. They last an hour and a half to two hours and cover the oldest part of the city from the Battery to Broad Street through alleys that were but rabbit warrens when I was a child growing up on South Battery.

South Battery As a French Huguenot with a family in Charleston since to 1686, I heard the stories of family legend and created a few of my own.

Let me give you an intimate look at a Charleston that no longer exists. 

Tours leave from the statue of the Defenders of Fort Sumter where Murray Blvd meets East Battery. They are $20.00 a person and leave daily at 9:30 am Reservations are suggested, not required. Cash or check accepted only. Pay at the end of the tour.
843-478-2059 e-mail: housebios2@aol.com
 

To see portions of a tour given in 1989

click here

Click PLAY BUTTON to see a short  film about Fort Sumter  (no sound)

The Night the Old South Died: Hurricane Hugo

What odd morning that was. I was sipping my coffee in our apartment on Montagu Street watching the breezes slowly whip the braches of the trees back and forth.  The television was on. and Charlie Hall was telling us that we stood a good chance of getting hit.

            I was prepared (or so I thought). I had covered all the windows with plywood and we were stocked to gills with bottled water and batteries.

            Suddenly, the phone rang. I answered it, and a voice informed me that she was from a high-end hotel and wondered if I would give a couple a tour. I was incredulous, but broke. I asked if she was sure they would show up. She assured me emphatically that they would.

            Thus it was that I hopped on my bike and rode down to the corner of N. Market and Church streets.  Sitting on the wall of the parking lot, I suspected that no one would show. The market was deserted as it was on Christmas day, save for shop owners putting sandbags on their doors and boarding up windows. If I were from out of town, I would have hired a jet to Bali.

            I waited 20 minutes, then said to heck with it and rode my bike around the city. It was hot day, and everyone was sweating. The smell however wasn’t just good honest day’s work sweat – it was fear sweat. Even though Hurricane Hugo was out at sea, everyone knew it was going to hit us dead on. There was a palpable electric fear as people hammered plywood and threw sandbags form the trucks to the doorways. To read the rest click here

  

House Bio Sample:
An excerpt from 85 South Market:

        After the disasters -- the tornado and fire of the 1830s and  the merciless shelling of the war  the remnants of a civilization was sold in the bombed out ruins and another rose. Vincent Chicco found a way to sell liquor and, his son, another valued commodity at 85 Market Street.     The guidebook for tour guides published by the city of Charleston states that according to unpublished notes written by Robert Stockton, “85 Market Street was the site of Chiccos cafe. Vincent Chicco, the ‘King of the Blind Tigers,’ had his headquarters in a building previously on this site. Chicco led the fight locally against prohibition. He became a local hero and was elected repeatedly to City Council.”  To read more, Click here.