Now More Than Ever, Charleston Is in Charge

These days, everyone in Charleston, South Carolina—from local chefs and artists to fashion designers and environmentalists—is looking to the past to write its next chapter. An exciting vanguard of restaurants are building on the city’s famed culinary heritage with menus that reflect Charleston’s increasingly multicultural population. Cultural preservationists and curators are shining a light on forgotten Black American histories. Grassroots organizations are designing new parks and gardens while finding fresh ways to care for the land in the era of climate change. And in this hotel-mad town, a crop of stylish new properties have upped the ante. There’s never been a better time to reacquaint yourself with this beloved corner of the American South.

Living History

Preservationists and institutions are spotlighting the tales of a wider range of Charleston residents while protecting the city’s architectural and cultural legacies

1. American College of the Building Arts

Established in 2004, this is the only institution in the country that fuses a liberal arts education with hands-on training in traditional skills like blacksmithing, plaster working, timber framing, and stone carving. Book a campus tour or attend on-site events to see the students in action.

2. Morris Street

The Preservation Society of Charleston’s Black Businesses of Charleston Oral History Project documents unsung spots, like Dave’s Carry-Out, which, since 1987, has served seafood and Gullah dishes like red rice in this historically Black commercial district.

3. Aiken-Rhett House

This museum, run by the Historic Charleston Foundation and once owned by an 1800s politician and enslaver, connects the city’s antebellum past with its present in exhibits by local artists like Shepard Fairey and David Boatright.

4. International African American Museum (IAAM)

The IAAM opened in 2023 in an austere structure that seems to float above Gadsden’s Wharf, where at least 260,000 enslaved Africans were brought to America between 1670 and 1808, with exhibits about the Black diaspora in the US and beyond.

5. Cannonborough-Elliotborough

The Preservation Society’s Historic Markers Program maps key sites including those in the city’s Black, Jewish, and immigrant history. Explore them all in this evolving area above the French Quarter full of new places to eat and stay, like The Nickel Hotel.

6. Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art

Located on the College of Charleston campus, this multidisciplinary lab for visual artists from around the world has free exhibitions and lectures. Intimate “Meet the Maker” gatherings are available to members.

Environmental groups are countering climate change by tending to Charleston’s unique tidal ecosystem.

Cameron Wilder

Drawing on Charleston’s subtropical milieu, the city’s newest hotels, like The Dunlin, emphasize Southern elegance.

The Dunlin

Green Scheme

While city officials consider a storm-surge barrier around the peninsula, environmental groups are countering climate change right now by tending to the area’s unique tidal ecosystem. In April the grassroots MARSH Project began developing the Just Ecological Corridor, named after the pioneering Black biologist Ernest Everett Just. It will connect three tidal creeks, adding native flora, wildlife habitats, and public green spaces. After completing a redesign of the grounds at Colonial Lake this October, the Charleston Parks Conservancy will celebrate by hosting the inaugural Bloom Charleston festival, with plants for sale and events in the gardens, where climate-adapted flora will help mitigate the effects of flooding and saltwater incursion.

Rooms for All

Drawing on Charleston’s subtropical milieu, the city’s newest hotels emphasize Southern elegance. The Nickel Hotel (from $295) opened in June along Cannonborough’s buzzy Upper King Street with 50 rooms arranged around a plant-filled courtyard complete with a fountain and romantic wrought-iron balconies; this is the hospitality group Method Co.’s second bolt-hole in town, joining its charming sibling The Pinch (from $369), which arrived in 2022 with the instant-classic Southern tavern Lowland. Auberge Resorts made its Lowcountry debut last year with The Dunlin (pictured, from $550) on Johns Island, just 20 miles from downtown, where 72 guest rooms and 19 villas exude coastal chic, with plenty of wicker furniture and a grassy color palette inspired by the nearby Kiawah River. And more are on the horizon. Perhaps the most highly anticipated is The Cooper (from $795), a 191-key sanctuary that next year will become the first five-star hotel on the Charleston Harbor. Its on-site marina next to Waterfront Park will house a fleet of boats that can ferry guests to nearby Daniel Island. Further off is a new-build Four Seasons, which will open in 2028 in the Historic District.

The Name to Know

The iconic Charleston Place hotel, the restored Riviera Theater, the tennis facility and concert venue Credit One Stadium on Daniel Island, the Southern Italy–meets–Lowcountry restaurant Sorelle—all are the work of local magnate Ben Navarro and his Beemok Hospitality Collection. Up next: The Cooper hotel, the new downtown park American Gardens, and a makeover of the 70-acre Union Pier.

A Common Thread

Charleston’s biggest homegrown labels are proud purveyors of accessories that celebrate American design and craftsmanship, in color palettes inspired by the natural beauty of the South