From Elizabeth Arneson,
Your Guide to Bed & Breakfasts.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

Charleston, South Carolina, is a city that breathes history. The inns on this page were built before 1905 and are in the Walled City, Harleston Village, and Radcliffeborough neighborhoods of Charleston.

WALLED CITY

• 27 State Street Bed and Breakfast
  In the French Quarter of the original walled city, this early 1800s inn is within two blocks of the City Market and Waterfront Park. Each of its five rooms boasts a high-poster queen-size bed and Oriental rugs as well as a private entrance and kitchen or kitchen nook.

• Anchorage Inn
  Seventeen rooms and two suites with 17th-century English decor are available at this inn, which began life as an 1840s cotton warehouse. It is located on Vendue Range, just east of the original walled city.

• Bed and Breakfast at 4 Unity Alley, A
  A full breakfast is served in the formal dining room of this bed and breakfast in the French Quarter of the Walled City district. There are three guest rooms with antique and reproduction furniture in this renovated 18th-century warehouse with a small garden.

HARLESTON VILLAGE

• 1837 Bed and Breakfast and Tea Room
  Eight guest rooms and one suite occupy this 1800 cotton planter's home and brick carriage house, which is owned and operated by two artists. The guest accommodations include private entrances, canopied poster beds, antiques, period pieces, Oriental rugs and local artwork. A full breakfast, with such specialties as sausage pie, raspberry French toast, ham frittata with mornay sauce, and sour cream coffee cake, is served in the formal dining room or on the piazza at this Wentworth Street B&B.

• Ann Harper's Bed & Breakfast
  Owner Ann Harper serves a full homemade Southern breakfast to guests of her 1870 traditional Charleston single house on Smith Street. The guest quarters include a main bedroom, a single bedroom for a third person, a sitting area and a bath.

• Belvedere Bed and Breakfast
  Overlooking Colonial Lake in the Harleston Village historic district, this Colonial Revival style inn boasts large piazzas and landscaped gardens. This Rutledge Avenue home was built around 1900, but its interior includes mantels, wainscoting, chair rails, and window and door surrounds from the Adam period that were salvaged from the circa 1790 Belvedere Plantation when it was demolished. Queen canopy beds and antiques are found in all three guest rooms.

• Rutledge Victorian Guest House
  On Rutledge Avenue and near many downtown historic sites, this 1887 Painted Lady with a 120-foot wraparound verandah offers 11 guest rooms, including a suite visited by a ghost named Sarah, the daughter of a previous owner. Most rooms have king or queen beds and are furnished with Victorian antiques. Up to four guests can stay in 6 Ambrose Alley, the 1837 brick kitchen house and servant quarters, which has a kitchen, a living room with fireplace, two bedrooms and a bath.

• Villa de la Fontaine
  Furnished with American antiques, this 1830s Greek Revival mansion on Wentworth Street offers several guest rooms with four-poster canopy beds in the main house. Also, in the garden, there is a Gazebo Room with a sitting room downstairs and a bed and bath above. Formal gardens and terraces with fountains grace the grounds of Villa de la Fontaine, which is enclosed by a 7-foot brick wall and iron gates. A full breakfast is provided in the solarium overlooking the garden.

• Wentworth Mansion
  Hand-carved marble fireplaces, intricate woodwork, and Tiffany stained-glass windows and crystal chandeliers are among the refinements that fill this 1886 Second Empire mansion on Wentworth Street. All 21 guest rooms and suites feature king-size beds and whirlpools, and most have gas fireplaces.

• Wortham House
  One of America's oldest Gothic Revival carriage houses, this Montagu Street bed and breakfast accommodates up to six guests in its three bedrooms. It is situated in an award-winning formal garden behind the historic Isaac Motte Dart House (circa 1806) and just outside of the Harleston Village historic district.

RADCLIFFEBOROUGH

• Ashley Inn Bed and Breakfast
  Built in 1832, this Ashley Avenue B&B includes six guest rooms and one suite, all with antique furnishings, plus a carriage house with two bedrooms, 1 and 1/2 baths, a living room and a kitchen/dining area. The Ashley Inn is known for its gourmet breakfast, which features Low Country specialties such as savory sausage souffle with basil eggs and French puff muffins, or Southern grits casserole with white cream gravy.

• Cannonboro Inn
  Served on a columned piazza overlooking the garden and fountain or in the formal dining room, breakfast at the 1853 Cannonboro Inn may include peaches-and-cream-filled waffles with praline sauce. There are five guest rooms (featuring antiques and four-poster or canopied beds) and one suite (containing a bedroom with a queen and a single bed, a living room, a kitchen with breakfast bar, and a bath) in this Victorian-style Charleston single house on Ashley Avenue.