College of Charleston (Cistern Yard and Main Building)

Six Founding Fathers signed the paperwork that created this place — three of them put their names on the Declaration of Independence, three on the Constitution. Founded in 1770, the College of Charleston is the oldest municipal college in the country and the 13th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Randolph Hall and the President's House were both built using slave labor. That fact belongs in the same sentence as the beauty of the place, because the building demanded both.