French Quarter

Charleston's French Quarter is considered part of the oldest "settled" area on the peninsula and was once contained within the "Walled City". The neighborhood was settled as part of the original Grande Model of Charles Towne in 1680. The French Quarter is home to a multitude of fine historic buildings, among them, the Pink House Tavern, built around 1712, and the Old Slave Mart, built by Z.B. Oakes in 1859. 

Also in the French Quarter are the Dock Street Theatre, arguably the first site of theatrical productions in the United States, and the French Huguenot Church, a beautiful Gothic Revival church which houses the sole-surviving French Calvinist Congregation in the United States. St. Philip's Episcopal Church, the first congregation in Charleston, whose current building dates to 1835 is also in the French Quarter. St. Philip's graveyard is the final resting place of Edward Rutledge, the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, and U.S. Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, whose body was exhumed during the Civil War and buried near the church in an unmarked grave. Later, after the war, his body was moved back to its original location and a memorial constructed in the 1880s.

The area didn't began being called the French Quarter until around 1973 when preservation efforts began for warehouse buildings on the Lodge Alley block. The name recognizes the high concentration of French merchants in the area's history. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. A stroll through The French Quarter is an absolute must during your time in Charleston.

French Quarter Listings