This guide covers three very different places in and around Charleston. Rainbow Row and the Old Slave Mart Museum stand a short walk apart in the old city, and both say something about who built the wealth of the port and how the city remembers it. The Angel Oak, a huge live oak on Johns Island, lies outside the centre and is worth the trip on its own.
Rainbow Row
Rainbow Row is a run of thirteen houses on East Bay Street, between Tradd and Elliott Streets, roughly numbers 79 to 107. They were built by merchants, with a shop or counting house on the ground floor and the family living above, at a time when the street faced straight onto the Cooper River; the land in front was filled in later. Some of the houses go back to the 1740s, when Othniel Beale bought land here, and others were built or rebuilt after a fire in 1778 that destroyed much of the area but spared numbers 95 to 101.
After the Civil War the street went downhill and by the early 20th century these houses were close to slums. In 1931 Dorothy Haskell Porcher Legge bought and began restoring numbers 99 to 101 and painted them pink, following a colonial Caribbean colour scheme. Other owners followed with their own pastel colours, and by 1945 most of the row had been restored. The name Rainbow Row comes from those restorations of the 1930s and 1940s.
- The pink pair at 99–101 East Bay, the house that started the colours.
- The ground floors, where the wide openings of the old shopfronts are still easy to read.
- Remember that these are private homes: photograph from the pavement and keep the doorsteps clear.
The colours: fact and legend
Several stories explain the colours. One says they helped sailors who had been drinking find their lodgings; another says they let customers who could not read find the right shop. These are legends: the colours date from the 20th-century restorations, not from the merchants' time. A more practical reason often given is that light colours help keep a house cooler in the Charleston summer.
Old Slave Mart Museum
At 6 Chalmers Street, a cobbled lane a few blocks from the Old Exchange, stands the last surviving building of a slave auction complex in South Carolina. Until 1856 enslaved people were sold in the open, above all around the Old Exchange; that year the city banned public auctions there, and the trade moved indoors. On 1 July 1856 Ryan's Mart opened on this site, owned by the city councilman Thomas Ryan: a walled lot with a salesroom, a kitchen, an infirmary, a four-storey jail and a pen. The building you see today was the salesroom, built in 1859 by the auctioneer Z. B. Oakes, who had bought the mart. Sales ended around 1863, during the Union bombardment of the city, and Union forces closed the mart in 1865.
In 1938 Miriam B. Wilson bought the building and opened a museum here, at first showing African and African American arts and crafts. It closed in 1987; the city bought it in 1988, restored it and reopened it in 2007 as a museum about Charleston's role in the domestic slave trade. Charleston was one of the main ports through which enslaved Africans were brought to North America, and the exhibits tell the stories of the people sold here.
- What to look for: the front of the former salesroom on the narrow street, the only part of Ryan's Mart still standing.
- Take your time with the personal stories and documents inside; the museum is small and best seen slowly. It is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
Angel Oak
On Johns Island, south-west of the city, the Angel Oak is a southern live oak believed to be between 400 and 500 years old; some claim more, but most historians accept the lower estimate. It is about 66 feet tall, its shade covers around 17,200 square feet and its longest branch reaches about 187 feet. The tree takes its name from the estate of Justus Angel and his wife, Martha Waight Tucker Angel, on whose land it stood.
Local folklore says that the ghosts of formerly enslaved people appear as angels around the tree; treat it as a legend that has grown up around the name. The oak was badly damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and since 1991 the City of Charleston has owned the tree and the small park around it.
- What to look for: the huge lower limbs that dip down to rest on the ground and rise again, typical of old live oaks.
- Visit early or late in the day for softer light; the park is outside the walking area, so plan it as a separate trip by car, perhaps on the way to the sea islands of Kiawah or Seabrook.
How to see them in one walk
In the old city, start at the Old Slave Mart Museum on Chalmers Street. Walk east to East Bay Street, then follow it south past the Old Exchange to Rainbow Row; the best view of the whole row is from the opposite pavement. From here Waterfront Park and the Battery are close by. Keep the Angel Oak for a separate morning or afternoon.
See Charleston with World City Trail
Our Charleston scavenger hunt turns the old city into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the Charleston Museum to Waterfront Park, and two of the places in this guide are stops: the Old Slave Mart Museum and Rainbow Row. Other stops include the City Market, the Heyward-Washington House and the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. The Angel Oak is not on the route.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Charleston, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Charleston scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Charleston →
Play the outdoor escape game in Charleston →
Facts checked in October 2026.