The grand homes along Charleston's "Battery Row" have some great stories. The Roper House at #9 still has a large section of a Civil War cannon in its attic. The gun was blown up by evacuating Confederates in 1865, and a massive part of the barrel flew over two big houses and became a top-story fixture. The Roper House also has earthquake plates fashioned in the form of lions heads on its front facade. Next door at number 13(so numbered because these are double lots), the Ravenel House has a peculiar protruding basement. It once supported a two-story portico with Corinthian columns, which collapsed during Charleston's 1886 earthquake. One of the big column capitals, which is the top ornamented section for those of you architecturally-challenged, was not found after the earthquake and presumed lost, but when Hurricane Gracie knocked down a big sidewalk oak tree in 1959, the capital was there in the upturned roots, having been buried by the force of its fall 73 years earlier. More to come…
