Charleston
November 16–17, 2018
Davidson men's basketball team played in the Charleston Classic again, beating Wichita State and Northeastern, and in between lost to Purdue. So all in all it was a successful tournament. Tim Dwight and I again attended. We did some sightseeing as always, and I got to visit with some family. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as usual. Links to my pictures from four previous trips can be found on the bottom of this page. If Tim passes along some of his pictures, I'll post a page of them with a link below.
The fifteenth, first day of the tournament, we attended at least part of all four games. On Friday we toured the Calhoun Mansion. It is not one of the historic old homes, but is interesting in its own right. It was built in the late nineteenth century and reflects the excesses of the Gilded Age. It passed through the hands of a variety of owners, including a woman who married a Calhoun, hence its current name. The current owner makes it his home. During tourist hours he and the dogs stay on the third floor, which is otherwise the guest area. He began collecting antiques when he was 15, and he continues to fill the house with his finds. He doesn't go beyond the Eastern Seaboard on the US, but purchases items that wealthy travelers have picked up over the decades.
I took some pictures as we walked down Market Street to and from the house. No interior pictures are permitted, but I was able to get some exterior shots and of the foyer. I'll start with those and follow with pictures I made before and after the house tour.
Along Market Street
Looking south on Market Street you can see to the water at the Battery.
First Scots Presbyterian Church is along the street. In the cemetery are buried folks with family connections to Davidson College, and a chapel is named in memory of one or more members of the Lilly family.
There were no games on Saturday. We headed about 15 miles northwest out to tour Drayton Hall It is about 150 years older than the Calhoun Mansion and about as completely opposite a tour as possible, and different from most plantation tours. It is preservation, not restoration, so the goal is to keep it as much as possible in a stable condition. There are no furnishings. Doors, mantels, etc., have been removed as well as furniture.
I didn't expect to be able to take interior pictures, so I didn't think to take my camera along. So these are a few things I shot with my cell phone. I start with pictures of the back of the house:
View out the front door. You can see where the road was that carriages took.
The Georgian Palladian architecture reflects the symmetry of Enlightenment ideals.
So if you had a door on one side of the room, you needed a fake one on the other side to balance.
If the door is missing, you see the brick wall that was behind it.
The view from the rear of the house toward the river:
Charleston Pictures: