Pineapple Fountain - Charleston's Front Porch

Photo: JonathanLamb, CC BY 3.0 (cropped)

A stop on Charleston Historic District Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You are standing at the Pineapple Fountain, the centerpiece of Waterfront Park and a favorite place to cool your feet on a hot day. The pineapple has long served as a symbol of hospitality in Charleston, and you will spot it again on gateposts and ironwork around town.

This lawn was not always so pleasant. For centuries the Cooper River edge was lined with wharves and warehouses, the working heart of the colonial port. Ships unloaded cloth, wine and manufactured goods and carried away rice and indigo grown by enslaved people on Lowcountry plantations. After a steamship terminal burned in 1955, the waterfront slid into charred pilings and gravel parking lots.

Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. made reclaiming this shore for the public an early goal, and the park, designed by Sasaki Associates, opened in May 1990. Before you set off, stroll out on the wooden pier to look across the harbor, then come back here to begin.

Getting here: Start at the bronze pineapple in the middle of the lawn, in front of the City Gallery, at the foot of Vendue Range.

Did you know?: Hurricane Hugo struck Charleston in September 1989 while the park was still under construction and did about 1 million dollars in damage to it. The park opened anyway, on May 11, 1990.

Photo op: Stand on the harbor side of the fountain and frame the pineapple with the lawn and the old East Bay rooftops behind it.

More on Wikipedia: Waterfront Park · Joseph P. Riley Jr. · Hurricane Hugo

Pineapple Fountain - Charleston's Front Porch

Stops on this tour