Rainbow Row

Rainbow Row, Charleston, SC    

It's one of the most likely tourist photo ops - the colorful stretch of historic houses on East Bay Street. It caught my attention on a recent walk with the addition of a new color. The pretty periwinkle shade is freshly painted and a happy surprise. 

Rainbow Row is the name for a series of thirteen colorful historic houses in Charleston, South Carolina. It represents the longest cluster of Georgian row houses in the United States. The houses are located north of Tradd St. and south of Elliot St. on East Bay Street, that is, 79 to 107 East Bay Street. The name Rainbow Row was coined after the pastel colors they were painted as they were restored in the 1930s and 1940s. It is a popular tourist attraction and is one of the most photographed parts of Charleston.

Yeah, it's Friday!

East Bay St., Charleston, S.C.

This is a frequently photographed section of East Bay St. and it's easy to understand why. It is such a delight to everyone going by that the owners should leave a coin jar out for us all to chip in on maintenance.

I stayed up until midnight last night finishing a work project so I felt justified slipping out to catch my Friday matinee at the Terrace Theater. I saw Moonrise Kingdom and sat in the dark theater grinning to myself. I loved it. Go see it! Thank you, thank you Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis and gang.

Now, someone left a bottle of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur in my frig and I am going to have to deal with it. In other news, I ordered chest #5 this morning. Woohoo! Can't wait.

Rainbow on a gloomy day

Rainbow Row, Charleston, S.C.

There are so many trees on this stretch of East Bay St. that it is hard to get a good picture of the row of houses that make up Rainbow Row. It is a little easier during the winter with some of the trees bare. Check out all these google images: Rainbow Row.

Rainbow Row: After the Civil War, this area of Charleston devolved into near slum conditions. In the early 1900s, Dorothy Porcher Legge purchased a section of these houses numbering 99 through 101 East Bay and began to renovate them. She chose to paint these houses pink based on a colonial Caribbean color scheme. Other owners and future owners followed suit, creating the "rainbow" of pastel colors present today. The coloring of the houses helped keep the houses cool inside as well as give the area its name.

Common myths concerning Charleston include variants on the reasons for the paint colors. According to some tales, the houses were painted in the various colors such that the intoxicated sailors coming in from port could remember which houses they were to bunk in.

 This vintage car happened to come by at just the right time!