Edmondston-Alston House

Built in 1825 by Scottish shipping merchant Charles Edmondston at the height of his commercial success, the house at 21 East Battery changed hands when the Panic of 1837 forced him to sell. Charles Alston, of a Low Country rice-planting dynasty, bought it, added a third-story piazza with Corinthian columns, a cast-iron balcony, and a rooftop railing bearing the Alston coat of arms. The family has held it since. From its piazza, General P.T. Beauregard watched the bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The furniture, silver, and portraits — and the stories of the enslaved people who lived alongside the Alstons — remain.