If you've been reading here awhile, you might remember the recent post a month or so month about Miss Lois Hazelhurst. And how I wondered where she might've attended school. I mentioned this high school as a possibility.
to see Lois' story, click below:
So when we were in this neighborhood totally searching for ANOTHER PROPERTY I was writing about-- I was very surprised to see that here we were, at the old Charleston High School.
 |
| The columns are beautiful and majestic! |
I stood here and tried to imagine students back in the 1800s climbing these very steps to attend classes each day. They might've LOOKED different (their clothing, hairstyles, etc.)--but teenagers are teenagers no matter the era. I'm sure alot of jostling and good natured teasing went on at the end of the day, as the students tumbled out, down those stairs, and headed on their way home. Heavy books were clutched, stomachs grumbled with hunger, pretty girls flirted, and the clip-clop of horses hooves could be heard up and down Society Street.
Many students hurried home to help with younger brothers and sisters, or to piano or voice lessons. Many young boys held after-school jobs to earn a little spending money. They might have worked at the local pharmacies or grocery stores delivering groceries, or apprenticed with a silversmith or cobbler to learn a trade. Or perhaps helped out at one of the numerous stables or in the kitchen at a restaurant. A young lady in that time might have worked as a "mother's helper" to prepare her for a governess position, and if she could play the harp or sing--she could likely earn some money in teaching those skills as well. Young ladies also worked in shops waiting on customers.
I'm sure girls and boys had crushes on each other just as they do these days. And I'm sure kids from that era yearned for popularity and acceptance and good looks and talent just as today's youth do. High school students in this era had study hall and library time just like today's students. A hard Math test is a hard math test---whether it's 1868 or 2016, right?
We happened upon the old school at the right time of day....the lighting was so pretty and gave the building a wonderful "creamsicle" glow.
Its a pretty old building, isn't it? And just look at all the amazing intricate carving! I love the big tall columns.
 |
| fine and fancy workmanship! |
Would you like to live there?
i remember the young lady lois story!! it is a beautiful building, i would NOT think it was a school just passing by. everything turns into condo's theses days, it makes finical sense. i could definitely live here, i like the pink for charleston!!!! ooooh and the wrought iron is beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful building ♥
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that it has been turned into condos rather than torn down. I think it would have been fun to go to school there. The school board sure spent some money on the details!
ReplyDeleteHugs
Jane
You're right -- math is hard, no matter the century! And I remember Lois'story. I think this is just stunning.
ReplyDeleteoh my gosh, what a beautiful school! and not to sound stupid here but i didn't know they had separate high schools back then!
ReplyDeleteIt is a beautiful school and glad it was not torn down. What a great space to have a condo in with its history and character. The columns are gorgeous but pink is not a color I lived for a house...
ReplyDeleteI so love that you're a fellow Muser, Imaginer, Maker-Upper of whole lives and small moments, merely from seeing where things WERE and absorbing the long-ago vibrations and airs of another time. Or of the NOW---we both make stories of the folks who live in the small house on the corner, or the big one down the way, hooded with great purplish awnings like the marquees on a thirties nightclub. Posh or poor, these places sing their own lives as loudly as landscaped boomboxes, as softly as mist in the garden.
ReplyDeleteAnd your gentle speculations of their activities and hopes and dreams---such a lovely story to wake to on this bright Fall day. I'm watching that Renovating Charleston thing on TV, and just seeing the shadows and the dust, the skeletons of those wonderful houses, and the I Wonders and the They Must Have and Oh, What A Beautiful swirl though every ripped-away board and brick, and reappear in bright new paint and polish. I even wanted to send him this fabulous old doorbell last night---one of those brass things which goes through the door with a little turn-key on the outside, and makes a bright, buzzy brazen RINGGGGGGG in the foyer.
Best of Rest of November to you, my faraway friend.
rachel