The 66th Festival Of Houses And Gardens In Charleston

For 66 years, the Charleston Historical Society has hosted the Festival of Houses and Gardens.

The festival is held during spring's peak blooming season, so you can only imagine how gorgeous the gardens are.

There are 7 to 10 houses each day to tour, offering a rare opportunity to see the inside of homes dating back to the 18th century.

Let's take a tour of Charleston shall we?

This is your typical Charleston house, called a single house.

Notice the front door.  It opens to an open piazza (a Charleston term for a double porch) and garden.

Once inside, the front door is typically in the middle.  Inside the foyer, the living room faces the street and the dining room toward the back.  Stairway straight ahead.

The kitchen was usually in a separate building behind the main house.  Kitchen fires were quite common back in the day.

Now, the main house is connected with the kitchen, called a "hyphen."

Not all houses are single houses.

I think this home is just lovely with the brick and boxwood garden.

In South Carolina, you are allowed to take photos from the street only.  It is against the law to photograph on the property without the owner's permission.

Unfortunately, that means I didn't get any photos of the lovely gardens or inside the homes on the tours.

So with camera in hand, I took a million photos of the exteriors!

I wasn't the only one taking pictures!

There is just so much beauty here!

Shady paths and courtyards everywhere...

I can see why Charleston is known as the "city set in a garden."

Antique homes everywhere!

Unfortunately, we were able to take only one house tour due to the timing of our stay over Easter weekend.

So you can only imagine my delight and surprise when we were invited for cocktails at the lovely home of a mutual friend whose garden was on the tour!

Here I am posing with by BFF Maureen, our hostess Monica and her daughter Katie, thinking I've died and gone to heaven!
Thank you Monica for opening your home to us and for your hospitality.

It was the highlight of our trip, and quite frankly, the best home we saw!

For more information on Charleston's Festival of Houses and Gardens, visit their website here.

I'm joining The Tablescaper for "Oh the Places I've Been."