While in Charleston, SC, Lindsay and I visited the Old Exchange Building & Provost Dungeon. This building was completed in 1771 and it entertained George Washington in 1791! South Carolina declared independence from England in 1776 in this very building!I think I was more excited about this one than Lindsay was, but she was a good sport and played along with my geekiness. :)
Our first stop was the 'basement' for the dungeon tour. Here's the door.....
And here's the view from the other side of the door - from inside the dungeon.
Just inside the dungeon door, our tour guide showed us the original sea wall of Charleston (on the right in the photo, below the black fence). Now the sea wall is about 2-3 blocks out further into the water. They expanded Charleston! The tour guide said that water still seeps in and they have to drain it out every couple weeks.
These weird stairs in the middle of the wall were once stairs down to ground level. So bizarre!
It's just the strangest thing to see stairs that empty out to nothingness!
Here's our tour guide, explaining what imprisonment was like down in this dungeon.
She told us that the mortar in between the bricks down there is made up of crushed oyster shells and then 2 other ingredients.....so if you're ever out of concrete, just crush up some seashells and mix them up with a few other things and you're good to go. lol
Some old whiskey barrels!
It's the south, isn't it??
In case you were rusty on your pirate knowledge.....here's a diagram!
Up above the dungeon are more humane things to look at - like this old postal service window. The post office was located here in 1815. Isn't it beautiful??
The woodwork was absolutely amazing.
And after talking with one of the volunteers/employees, we learned that George Washington hung out there back in the day!
Here's where George hung out......AMAZING.
And I was told that George Washington stood on this very floor - exactly where I am standing in this picture. I was mesmerized!
And after standing where I was standing, he walked out on this balcony and addressed the citizens. I'm such a history geek! It was here that South Carolina declared its independence from Great Britain - on these steps!
This is exactly what George saw as he walked out to greet the people.
2 comments:
You have one of your facts wrong. The person that told us about the George Washington bit was the old guy that was molesting us with historical facts at the door. You know, the one I ran away from :).
Haha - yeah, you had had enough of Mr. Volunteer of the Century!!
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