Information & history on rear of piece:
Was the first steam locomotive to go into commercial service on the South Carolina Railroad.   Ordered March 1830 and steamed for the first time on November 2,  it began public service January 15,  1831.   During a run on June 17,  1831 the boiler exploded.   After the accident,  the engine was rebuilt and renamed Phoenix.   The first section of railroad track was laid from Charleston to Branchville,  the first railroad junction in America.

Information & history on rear of piece:
Today's Middleton Place House is all that remains of what was once a three-part residential complex,  consisting of a main house and a dependency building,  or flanker,  on either side.   The main house, which dated to the late 1730's and is now in ruins,  was the home of John Williams.   Mary,  his daughter,  in 1741 married Henry Middleton,  a wealthy young planter.   The house and surrounding 200 acres were part of her bridal dowry.   Middleton began construction of the gardens,  which according to tradition took the work of 100 slaves laboring seasonally for ten years to complete.   In 1755 he added the two-story north and south flankers.   On February 22,  1865,  a foraging party from the 56th New York Volunteers,  part of General Sherman's army,  looted and burned Middleton Place.   The main house and north flanker were almost completely destroyed,  their fragile walls leveled twenty years later in the Great Earthquake of 1886.   The south flanker was less damaged and Williams Middleton was able to restore and enlarge it in the 1870s as the family residence.   Open to the public since February,  1975,  the Middleton Place House Museum displays a collection of family furniture,  paintings,  silver,  porcelain and books that give meaning to the story of life at Middleton Place.

Information & history on rear of piece:
Located on Church Street,  theDr. Vincent LeSeigneur House is a 3-1/2 story stuccoed.   Adamesque single house with a two tiered piazza.   The house was built between September of 1811 and June of 1812 by George Keenan,  a grocery merchant.   In 1814 the home was purchased by Dr. Vincent LeSeigneur,  a native of Caen,  Normandy,  who significantly improved the property.   Dr. LeSeigneur immigrated to Charleston in 1793 as a refugee from the Santo Domingan slave revolution.   While in Charleston,  he was noted for operating a hospital for slaves known as the House of Health,  which was located at the corner of Broad and Savage Streets.   After the doctor's death in 1846 the property was the home of the related Hopkins - Mikell - Lebby - Jenkins family for 125 years with the title descending in the female line.   The interior features handsome woodwork and decorative plaster of the Adam,  Regency,  and Victorian periods.

Information & history on rear of piece:
The land for the City Market was donated by the Pinckney Family in 1788 and was originally designed as Charleston's major market for food.   Today,  sweetgrass basketmakers can be found in the City Market demonstrating their ancient craft,  unique to the Charleston area.   This art form was brought to the lowcountry by slaves from West Africa more than 300 years ago,  and continues to be passed from generation to generation.

Information & history on rear of piece:
Built in 1856 for cotton broker Francis J. Porcher,  this house originally had a pedimented center pavilion and masked piazza in the Italianate style.   In 1894,  John C. Simonds purchased the house and remodeled it in the popular Italian Renaissance Revival style.   The two front piazzas,  one square and one oval,  were added as well as a semi-oval wing on the south side.   The alleged story behind the unique style of the house is said to be because of a disagreement between husband and wife over the specific style - one wanted the Italianate style while the other wanted the Renaissance style.   The contractor impatient and tired of the indecisiveness of the couple,  decided to blend the two styles,  thus the eclectic combination of carved textures and Ionic order columns.

Information & history on rear of piece:
Built in 1849,  the mansion is the second house along Charleston's famous Battery.   The walls, made of local brick,  are 32 inches thick.   Despite their thickness, the house was severly damaged during the earthquake of 1886.   The house is sometimes referred to as the  "pink palace"  because of the liberal use of pink paint on the exterior of the house and garden area.  During the Civil War,  it was the home of Dr. St. Julien Ravenel,  the builder of the Confederate torpedo boat, "David".   The cigar shaped vessel,  50 feet long and powered by steam, attacked and seriously damaged the Union frigate,  New Ironsides,  on Oct 5,  1863.   In 1953,  the house was purchased by Dr.Joe Sam Palmer,  and is currently operated as a Bed and Breakfast.