Established by the Garden Club of Charleston over 80 years ago, The Gateway Walk is a literal hidden gem of a tour through some of Charleston’s most amazing graveyards and unknown spaces. Starting on Archdale Street, the walk crosses through or past four historic churches: St. John’s Lutheran, the Unitarian Church, the Circular Church, and St. Philips Church; and two Charleston institutions: the Library Society, and the Gibbes Museum of Art.
The red door and checkerboard entry floor are beautiful additions to this church, which was established in 1818. Elaborate wrought iron gates were shut tight the morning I walked the Gateway Walk, but the exterior architecture is worth checking out, and also peek into the graveyard because it’s a stark contrast to the Unitarian Church graveyard next door.
The Unitarian church is one of my favorites in town because of it’s unkempt rows of headstones and uneven bricks. I’ve photographed the graveyard before, and you can see the pictures here. The Gateway Walk slips quietly through the space, and disappears out the back through more wrought iron gates and down a brick walkway that’s shaded and beautiful with hydrangeas blooming and birdhouse-shaped lights.
Across King Street is the Library Society, which collected the first pieces that helped establish the Charleston Museum. The society also founded the College of Charleston.
The Gateway walk is named for the many wrought iron gates along the path. Each one is unique and lovely in its own way, even with rusted texture and a kind of imperfect perfection. The Gibbes Museum of Art has a beautiful courtyard with some lovely statues, including a fountain of Persephone, and a quiet open space.
When you cross Meeting Street from the Gibbes, you can enter the grounds of the Circular Church, which is well known in Charleston because it’s, well, circular. But the unique space means amazing acoustics that are put to good use for concerts, especially during Spoleto Festival USA. The building is the fourth on the site, but the graveyard is the oldest burying ground in Charleston.
And while I really wanted to keep on walking to finish the tour, I walked to the back of the Circular Church’s graveyard along charming and uneven walking stones only to find the gate leading into the St. Phillip’s Church’s graveyard padlocked, so I turned back.
Reid Simons- Fulton says
http://www.stphilipschurchsc.org/our-history This is a wonderful list of Historical facts about St. Philips, I was brought up in that church and it is beautiful. Many of my ancestors are buried in the churchyard.