19. Powder Magazine   
79 Cumberland Street
circa 1712

Ground broke on the building known as the Powder Magazine around 1712, and it was completed roughly a year later. The magazine saw use during the Colonial period and for two months during the American Revolution. A British shell fired into the rebellious city in 1780 exploded within thirty feet of the magazine, which was loaded with nearly 10,000 pounds of gunpowder. Unwilling to have another such close call, the magazine was ordered emptied. Today, thanks to the efforts of the conservationists, tourists and locals, this building has been preserved. A tour of the building is available for a nominal fee.

20. Circular Congregational Church   
150 Meeting Street
circa 1892

This is only the fourth church to have stood on this location since its inception in 1681. Meeting Street takes its name from the first church on this site, which was dubbed “The White Meeting House.” Services were disrupted during the 1780-1782 occupation of Charleston as the British used the church as a hospital for their wounded. The great fire of 1861 claimed the third church. For over 20 years the ruins sat on Meeting Street, until it was demolished in the earthquake of 1886. As many bricks as possible were salvaged from the ruins to build this church in 1892.

21. Gibbes Art Gallery   
135 Meeting Street
circa 1904

In 1904 the Carolina Art Association opened the doors to Charleston’s premier art gallery. The name Gibbes was chosen to recognize James S. Gibbes, the benefactor who made the museum possible. Numerous unique pieces of art and sculpture are on permanent display inside the Gibbes. Visitors can view works by Rembrandt Peale, Samuel F.B. Morse (of Morse code fame), Gilbert Stuart and Benjamin West among dozens of other luminaries. From a small fee visitors are granted access to these cultural treasures.

22. Market Hall   
188 Meeting Street
circa 1841

Market Hall, the large building at the eastern end of North and South Market Streets, was built as an administrative and meeting area for different merchant guilds associated with the Market. The architect, Edward White, built it in the popular Roman Revival style. To see an overlooked feature glance up at the stucco frieze and you will see sheep and bull skulls! These old symbols denote the presence of a meat market. Today, this is the home of the local United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter, who operate a Civil War museum within.

23. Rainbow Row   
85-107 East Bay Street

Visitors to Charleston are surprised to learn that the world famous Rainbow Row did not come into existence until the Depression-era. Many of the buildings were there long before and date back to early 1700s. These structures were built as shops to cater to the wharf-front traffic, with the merchants’ homes above the store. Just after the turn of the century Dorothy Porcher Legge purchased the row, and decided to paint them with a Caribbean color scheme, popular in the Colonial period. The idea caught on, and since then all the homes of the row have been a colorful landmark.

24. Heyward-Washington House   
87 Church Street
circa 1772

Located within the original walls of Charles Towne, this Revolutionary War landmark home was built by rice planter Daniel Heyward for his son, Thomas Heyward, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. George Washington was one of its honored guests in 1791. The Charleston Museum acquired the property in 1929 as Charleston’s first historic house museum. Tours of the home include archives and exhibits as well as the kitchen building, the only preserved building of its kind open to the public in Charleston.