Wandering Charleston

I'm in Charleston with the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association Summer Board Meeting.  My goal...as it has been for several years is to learn, contribute and perhaps field a client or two.  After all that's what we do...help folks sell more of what they make. 

Today was a short day with little in the way of "official" business.  So, I wandered the area near our hotel, The Charleston Place.  If you are coming here to check out the wisdom of marketing and advertising there isn't much today.  However something must be here for people to brave the high temps and higher humidity.  Why would folks come here in the summer??? 

Have a look around.  Each photo can be enlarged with a click.  Just around the corner from the hotel is Meeting Street.  Shop after shop after shop.  Business today seemed brisk.  People in town for Freshman Orientation for the College of Charleston.  This is Williams Sonoma (stop me before I max out the card!) a favorite in an old theater.

And, I know how boring it is to watch "somebody's" slide show or photos...but humor me a bit.

There is a message at the end.

On the right is the entrance fo a church.  A Unitarian Church...what is interesting is that around all of the churches I saw...there are the old graveyards.  Lacking space like we do, the church just buried the folks "on site".  What a hoot come Halloween.

Down in this section of Meeting Street, in the opposite direction of The Collage of Charleston, are a series of antique shops.  Now, antiques here tend to be a bit different than antiques in Iowa.  Old here dates back to the 1700's.  I was in buildings, still used along Market Street, that were built 25 years BEFORE Iowa became a state.

Market street runs into Broad Street.  This seems to be the professional section of the Old City.  Plenty of law offices.  I had to muse a bit...wondering in which set of suites the South Carolina Governor's wife may have visited before trying to work it out...with the "wandering head of state".  (Side bar:  Just what the heck was he thinking anyway?)

Row after row of very old homes turned into offices and upscale lunch and dinner places.  Horse drawn cabs, trolleys and peddle-cabs seem to be a favorite mode of transportation in the Old City.  (Side bar:  How these guys wear SUITS, dark yet, during the summer here is beyond me.  Give me flowing robes or something..yikes!) A word about the horses, I was told by one of the guys I visited with that the ASPCA or city or somebody will not let the horses work when it gets hot.  How hot does it have to be?  Don't know but I was glad I wasn't pulling around a bunch of folks!

I walked down a street off Broad and came on this cross street paved in cobble stone.  Check the private home.  All along the side streets these two and three story narrow homes are bunched together.  Nobody has to worry about mowing the lawn here.  But, watch your footing.  A guy could sprain an ankle on these things.  But...charming?  You bet!

So...the marketing message here has got to be the word "charming".  We've seen that floated around in number of uses...but this place has it.  There can be NO OTHER reason to head here in the summer but...people do.  I spoke to folks from all over this country and others who were just as amazed in the character of the area.

And...the city works the "look".  Not every home is well painted and spiffy...but, you can forgive that because the look fits into the texture of the community.  Lot's of fun and thanks for indulging me just a bit.  Now...back to work!

 

 

Comments

[Georgie]

Looks nice! I'd love to go there some day!

[Michael Libbie]

Georgie: It really is a neat place. I had remembered the charm and it's only gotten better over the years. A couple of hours strolling doesn't make a good tour...working gets in the way...dang it. Actually, I'm grateful.