Regardless of where you are, fountains are one of those things that just bring people together.
That’s true whether you find yourself in Naperville, where Grumpy and I often enjoy spend summer evenings sitting near the Dandelion fountain along the Riverwalk, or in Charleston, South Carolina, where we headed straight to the Pineapple Fountain while on a recent vacation to this beautiful southern city.
The Pineapple in Waterfront Park symbolizes the city’s recovery from Hurricane Hugo in 1990. It’s an appropriate symbol given that since colonial times pineapples have represented wealth and hospitality.
Charleston is an elegant city with a far longer history than ours, but it’s hard not to forget that its early success was thanks, in part, to the labor of slaves. Nowadays the old plantations are tourist destinations, but it says something that they haven’t forgotten their roots.
At the beautiful Boone Hall, for example, we heard from the descendant of a slave who introduced us to the patois of the Gullah people. She told us how her ancestors grew rice, indigo and cotton and made bricks under the order of the man who owned them, their “master.” On the property was a row of small brick cabins, each one home to two slave families in the 19th century.
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The tour also allowed us to take a carriage ride through part of 738-acre estate, where we learned how the land is farmed and from where we could view the enchanting gardens bursting with color in the middle of summer. Perhaps best of all was the Avenue of Oaks, a tree-lined road covered by a leafy canopy swathed in veils of Spanish moss.
Charlestonians have blended old and new together seamlessly. After taking a walk through the Charleston City Market, which has been open since 1807, we happened into a coffee shop that we later realized was part of the Emeline Boutique Hotel. Built on the site of an old bank, the hotel has only been open since 2020 and seems to embrace both the traditional and the chic in its quality and design.
Speaking of hotels, we stayed at The Vendue, which bills itself as Charleston’s art hotel. It certainly lives up to its name given that it has a staff member whose job is to lead daily tours of its art collection. The interior’s striking red and white décor is another example of how an old building can be brought back to life in a way the average person would never imagine.
After watching countless horse-drawn carriages pass by our hotel windows, we decided to take one ourselves courtesy of the Old South Carriage Co. Offering comfortable seating for up to 16 people, the ride also featured a friendly staff and humorous guides who shared all there is to know about the city. Even the animal labor seem happy, although I didn’t get that from the horse’s mouth.
Despite staying in the city’s French Quarter, the nights were quiet. Charleston is a classy place where you’re more likely to see women passing by in maxi dresses and floppy hats than attired in the raunchy outfits often seen in the New Orleans district bearing the same name.
One thing that surprised me was how much the city’s ubiquitous palmetto trees really stole my heart. Whereas palm trees can grow 80 feet or taller, palmettos average about half that size. Spiky leaves burst from their trunk tops like fireworks and resemble pom poms from a distance.
Much like Pineapple Fountain, they’re the perfect symbol for a city that’s both hospitable and rich in history, beauty and southern charm.
Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved to Naperville from England in 2007. She can be reached at [email protected].