Historic Charleston Foundation
Historic Charleston Foundation
Historic Charleston Foundation
4.5
Speciality & Gift ShopsPoints of Interest & LandmarksHistory Museums
About
Located in a renovated gas station (c. 1930), Shop Historic Charleston's flagship store at 108 Meeting Street offers jewelry, food, tea, local art, and more quintessential Charleston gifts. In addition to the casual furnishings and garden and home décor you will find, Shop Historic Charleston boasts the city's largest bookstore dedicated to history, architecture, preservation, garden design and Lowcountry cuisine.
Duration: 1-2 hours
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4.5
39 reviews
Excellent
27
Very good
4
Average
2
Poor
3
Terrible
3
LittlePaint
Urbandale, IA745 contributions
Mar 2020 • Couples
My first thought, as I entered the Market Shop was that I was not going to find anything of interest. Too formal. Too fancy. But I was wrong. My husband noticed an amazing framed print of a great blue heron by James Audubon. It didn't take much discussion with the staff to find out that they also had unframed prints available for a very reasonable price. For a minimal charge, they rolled it into a cardboard tube for us for travel. And no sales tax was due, so I added a small donation to the foundation.
The staff were quite friendly, chatty, and helpful.
I will definitely return next time I'm in Charleston.
The staff were quite friendly, chatty, and helpful.
I will definitely return next time I'm in Charleston.
Written 15 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Equities4me
San Francisco46 contributions
Nov 2016 • Couples
The Historic Charleston Foundation shop at 112 Meeting Street should be your first stop before setting off to explore this historical district. They publish and sell a slim booklet called "The Complete Walking Tour of Historic Charleston." This was the best $4.50 purchase of our recent trip! In it you'll find a main walking tour and two shorter alternatives. It hits all the historical highlights with a great map and information about its many featured houses and locations. One of the things I enjoy when exploring a city for the first time is just wandering around - Charleston is a great place for that - it's compact, pedestrian friendly and easily explored over just a few hours. With this booklet, we were much better informed about what it was we were seeing. Before you join one of the expensive walking tours or popular carriage rides, consider this self-guided tour instead. You'll get much of the same information without the "shtick". And, you'll enjoy it at your own pace. I wish the hotels either also sold this booklet or would at least recommend it - we just got lucky. The shop also carries many other books, furnishings and local items you might enjoy as well.
Written 18 November 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Paige R
Nashville, TN394 contributions
Sept 2020
Wonderful, friendly and helpful staff. Great place to buy very nice Charleston souvenirs or gifts. Will be back!
Written 9 November 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kayakmi
35 contributions
Mar 2018 • Couples
We were one of many hundreds of people who purchased tickets, at $50 a piece, to do a walking tour of seven homes today. There were too many people to get through the long lines to go through most of the homes. The majority of the docents did not know their information very well so read from the script. We drove over 2 hours from Hilton Head to attend the walking tour. We've been on many historical tours and this one left us very disappointed. My husband rated it as a 2 out of 10 I rated as a 3. Basically, over-promised and under-deliver. Because of this experience we will not purchase any further tours through this group.
Written 23 March 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lisa E
Hickory, NC22 contributions
Mar 2018 • Couples
We planned our trip around a Glorious Garden tour in March believing this would be the best time to see the flowering plants. It was for what plants there were. The gardens are very small as expected. We also expected to see some potted flowering plants and there were few. We saw more just walking along the streets looking at window boxes and seeing through gates into gardens that were not on the tour. It was just an OK tour, not really worth $150 for 3 people. The one bonus is that they did allow photography in several gardens though it was so crowded you didn't get many photos. The thing that really annoyed me was the 'wine reception' at the end. One type of wine served in a plastic cup, nuts and goldfish crackers do not make much of a reception. I'm serious. That is all they served. That isn't Southern hospitality or any hospitality.
Written 6 April 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
STLtravel35
STL71 contributions
Apr 2016 • Couples
This festival is quite lengthy with several tour options throughout, but only 1-2 daily (while we were there towards the end). It was pricey so I asked some locals if it was really worth it. Yep, definitely.
We took the Tradd St tour (2-5pm). You are given a wrist band and map with a list of 8 incredible homes/gardens and you can chose your own pace and order of homes. It felt like the homes were thoughtfully chosen to represent different styles, historical significance, garden designs, repurposing, etc. Each home was unique but the tour format remained consistent. There was a docent in each room explaining specific architecture and decor requested by the owner. We started at #8 and worked backwards. For the most part we kept moving and didn't have to wait very long to enter each house. We started right at 2pm and finished up at 4:45 without taking any breaks.
This is an opportunity to enter the homes that you walk by and wonder what they look like inside. It's a no-brainer....it was fun and I'd do it again next year!
We took the Tradd St tour (2-5pm). You are given a wrist band and map with a list of 8 incredible homes/gardens and you can chose your own pace and order of homes. It felt like the homes were thoughtfully chosen to represent different styles, historical significance, garden designs, repurposing, etc. Each home was unique but the tour format remained consistent. There was a docent in each room explaining specific architecture and decor requested by the owner. We started at #8 and worked backwards. For the most part we kept moving and didn't have to wait very long to enter each house. We started right at 2pm and finished up at 4:45 without taking any breaks.
This is an opportunity to enter the homes that you walk by and wonder what they look like inside. It's a no-brainer....it was fun and I'd do it again next year!
Written 25 April 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lydia19
Toronto, Canada53 contributions
Mar 2019 • Couples
We went on a home tour and a garden tour during the last week of March, and also a historical walking tour. The walking tour was excellent. The homes tour was very disappointing. We had to line up at most properties and then go into the homes in groups. While I understand that the docents are volunteers, a lot were not very well informed, and in reality there really wasn't that much that needed to be said about the rooms in the homes. It would have been better to have sold half as many tickets, and have a docent in each home to answer questions, but not to give a spiel in the various rooms, which slowed things down. The gardens we saw on the "Glorious Gardens" tours were not very special. The line ups were not as bad for the gardens as they were for the homes tour, but we saw better gardens by peering through gates as we walked around.
Written 1 April 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
WASKingston
Kingston23 contributions
Apr 2017 • Friends
the shop of the foundation is located on meeting street. it is excellent. good quality, good variety, and there is a chair in which to lounge while looking at books. would definitely visit again if I were to go back.
my friend and I regretted that we had not driven to charleston because there were a number of garden ornaments that we would be happy to have in our gardens.
my friend and I regretted that we had not driven to charleston because there were a number of garden ornaments that we would be happy to have in our gardens.
Written 16 April 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Beth Z
Fort Worth, TX64 contributions
May 2016 • Family
Has I have been here several times the shopping is great. Libby Rose absolutely ruined the end of my trip. She was absolutely beyond rude and so unCharleston. I stopped shopping and left and will not return if that is the new standard. So sad to end on a bad note.
Written 19 May 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Centerfield23
Columbia, MD8 contributions
Apr 2016 • Couples
We frequently make it down to Charleston late March, early April, usually a wonderful time to visit. We support the foundation and have done these fundraising tours before, but this year was, frankly, disappointing, and not likely to be repeated (by us). We did a Saturday evening street tour, 5:00-8:00, 9 houses, that we saw little of because almost the entire historic district lost power just after 5:00. Can't blame them for that, other than to say that, being a fundraiser, a reschedule or refund was not going to be an option. We decided to try to fit in a second tour the next day to make up for that, a street tour that we had done four years earlier. After pointedly asking about, and being told that the houses would mostly be different than the ones we had seen before, we were (not happy) to find that they were almost all exactly the same. Once again we were left with the feeling of making a donation to the foundation, and little more. I would furthermore say that we were disappointed in how little we often saw of the homes. Typical was waiting in line outside a 6000 sq.ft. home for 6-8 minutes, only to be quickly ushered through 3 rooms and out the back in less time than we spent in line. A couple of the homes only seemed to be on the tour because they were up for sale and wanted some exposure, and one was a B&B that we were shown one unit of, apparently as a promotion. Next time we will just make a donation, and spend our time elsewhere.
Written 7 April 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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