Festival of Houses and Gardens

Houses and Gardens, Festival of

March-April

One of the nation's oldest and most prestigious house tours is held from mid-March to mid-April in Charleston, S.C. This 300-year-old city has been bombarded by land and sea, devastated by an earthquake, and battered by hurricanes, but it remains a place known for splendid wrought-iron embellished architecture. The port city has 73 pre-Revolutionary buildings, 136 late-18th-century structures, and 600 others built before the 1840s. Among the more interesting areas is Cabbage Row, the model for Catfish Row in DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy, on which George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess was based.
More than 100 homes and gardens, full of blooming azaleas and camellias, are usually included in the festival, which dates from 1947. It features both afternoon and evening candlelight tours, and special candlelight galas with music and wine.

CONTACTS:
Historic Charleston Foundation
40 E. Bay St.
P.O. Box 1120
Charleston, SC 29401
843-723-1623; fax: 843-577-2067
www.historiccharleston.org

SOURCES:
GdUSFest-1984, p. 168