Hills House Fountain courtyard where our Charleston walking tour began.
We met our guide here at 10:00 a.m. to walk for 2 hours and 40 minutes exploring Church Street and South of Broad Street--an area whose residents are known by the locals as SOB's. 
This area features homes in an historic district which limits changes that can be made--even in the color of the paint as in this photo of Rainbow Row. The renewal of the area was begun by a woman Realtor who bought the one to the left, restored it, painted it red, then encouraged others to restore the adjacent homes and paint them varied colors. She then established one of the first Registered Historic Districts which she named Rainbow Row.
Our guide told us that the least expensive two-story one x two's (one room deep by two rooms wide) were selling for $1,000,000.00 and more. Many of these homes are turned sideways on the lots so that the depth is the part facing the street and the front and back doors face their neighbors.
One can only imagine the market value of the huge mansions with huge columns and triple piazzas (fenced walk-out porches from each level of the home.)
As we were walking South toward Broad Street we passed a restaurant called SNOB. I couldn't resist taking a photo just to applaud the humor and whimsy pointed toward the obvious opulence and attitude of the outrageously rich. This group is certainly not unique to Charleston but their homes are certainly more accessible to foot traffic than homes of the wealthy in many other tourist areas.
Posted by: Sonia | January 23, 2006 at 06:21 PM