Thirteen Georgian row houses greet you in shades of peach, coral, yellow, and pink along Rainbow Row, the most photographed stretch of street in Charleston. These buildings date to the 1740s and were originally merchants' warehouses and shops, their ground floors used for commerce while owners lived above. They were built facing the Cooper River wharves for easy loading and unloading of cargo.
By the early twentieth century, Rainbow Row had deteriorated badly — many buildings were tenements or storage sheds. Susan Pringle Frost, a pioneering preservationist, began buying and restoring the properties in the 1920s, and it was she and her successors who chose the distinctive pastel colors inspired by similar houses in the Caribbean. Rainbow Row became the symbol of Charleston's historic preservation movement, which has since saved hundreds of buildings citywide.
The irony is rich: the money that built these warehouses came substantially from the trade in enslaved people and the goods they produced. Today the street draws thousands of visitors and photographers daily. The colors are undeniably beautiful.
They are also a reminder that beauty and a troubled history are not mutually exclusive — in Charleston, they are inseparable.