Here’s an old photo of a building and a car. Look familiar? What is it and where is it? Send us your guess of what this photo shows – as well as your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s mystery photo, “Brick and vines,” shows a brick-and-vine laden area of Bedon’s Alley in downtown Charleston.
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, remarked, “This area was first populated in the early 1700s and by the 1730s contained a mix of chandleries, counting houses and mercantile shops. Originally called ‘Middle Lane’, it was renamed after George Beadon (Bedon), a successful merchant and son of an English couple, George and Elisabeth Beadon, who arrived on the first ship to ‘Charles Town’ in 1670.
“The brick wall in the photo originally surrounded a number of small brick outbuildings used by the larger business establishments along Rainbow Row. The area was heavily damaged by the Charleston fires of 1740 and 1778 that swept through the alley and destroyed most of the original structures. What is particularly fascinating about the photo is the fact that as the growth of the live oak tree visible in the photo was being impeded by the wall, the residents decided to reconstruct the wall around the large tree limb rather than cut the tree down to protect the wall. Now that’s what I call preservation consciousness!”
Congrats to others who spotted this more difficult mystery: Steve Willis of Lancaster; Jay Altman and Elizabeth Jones, both of Columbia; George Graf of Palmyra, Va., who noted the building could have been an old Evening Post printing plant; and Pat Keadle of Wagener, who provided the picture at right;
- Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!