Charleston, South Carolina

A long weekend in Charleston in October 2025, mostly on foot. The historic district is small enough to walk end to end, and the low autumn sun lit it up all day: carriages working the streets between pastel rowhouses, two church steeples marking the skyline, and the big houses along the Battery looking out over the harbor. One morning went to the ferry out to Fort Sumter. Another went to the International African American Museum on Gadsden's Wharf, where an estimated 40% of all enslaved Africans brought to the United States first landed.

What's in the gallery

Horse-drawn carriages turning corners all over the old town. St. Philip's and St. Michael's steeples, Rainbow Row reflected in a car roof, and the piazza mansions on South Battery and along the seawall. Shoppers on King Street, cyclists by the City Market, visitors at the International African American Museum, and passengers silhouetted in the ferry windows as Fort Sumter comes into view.

Watch the Charleston photo walk video, shot on the Leica Q3.

Horse-drawn carriage passing a green clapboard house with a red roof on a Charleston street corner
Couple riding in a white French Quarter carriage pulled by a gray horse
White Greek Revival hall with tall columns and palmettos on Meeting Street in Charleston
St. Philip's Church steeple wrapped in scaffolding, framed by autumn branches
Man shading his eyes on a sunny marina dock in Charleston Harbor
Old South Carriage tour crossing Broad Street, St. Michael's steeple behind the palmettos
Rainbow Row's pastel houses reflected in the roof of a parked car
St. Philip's Church steeple at the end of Church Street with a carriage in the road
Carriage horse stopped at a crosswalk on a tree-lined Charleston street
Grand white mansion with a rounded tower and columned balconies near the Battery
Man on a dock framed in a ferry window, the Ravenel Bridge across the harbor behind him
Stucco house with blue shutters and a two-story columned piazza on a quiet corner
White steeple of St. Michael's Church beside a palmetto tree against a blue sky
Chestnut horse pulling an Old South Carriage tour past a Do Not Enter sign
White columned mansion on South Battery with people walking past
Three-story house with stacked piazzas between palmettos on the Battery
People walking the curving seawall promenade of the High Battery above Charleston Harbor
Jogger running along the Battery at dusk beside a lone palmetto
White Charleston house with curved double piazzas and hanging ferns
White Victorian house with gingerbread trim behind yellow flowers
Silhouetted passengers looking out the ferry windows at Charleston Harbor
Visitors walking past a polished granite wall in the memorial garden at the International African American Museum on Gadsden's Wharf
Shoppers on King Street reflected in a store window, the Riviera theater sign behind
Child on his father's shoulders holding up a flag past brick shop windows
Crosswalk and carriage outside the City Market reflected in a shop window
Two cyclists crossing the street in front of the Charleston City Market sheds
Carriage tour with a white horse seen past a rusted signpost
Horton Hayes building with a red roof and palmettos on a sunny Charleston street
Ferry passengers silhouetted against the windows as Fort Sumter and its flag come into view
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