You're driving in Downtown Charleston and all of a sudden your car begins to violently shake as if you haven’t had an alignment in 15 years. Chances are your alignment is fine, you must have just found your way onto one of Charleston’s cobblestone roads. The roads that help keep local mechanic shops in business and will flatten your LaCroix in less than 10 seconds!

Charleston’s beautiful cobblestone roads offer the opportunity to take a step back in time as you explore these historic streets. Although filled with history, there are sadly just a few cobblestone streets left here in the Holy City.

Today we’re going to take a look at the history of Charleston’s cobblestone streets and which ones still remain today if you want to take a stroll.

The History

In the 17th and 18th centuries, England wanted to utilize the resources and trade goods of the Lowcountry.  Ships would sail across the Atlantic Ocean to the ports of Charleston, and the cobblestone streets were a “side effect.”

The stones you walk on were actually used as weights by the ships coming overseas to make them denser and drop them further in the water to make them less susceptible to rough conditions.  Once the ships arrived here in Charleston to load up their goods, they had no room for the stones and tossed them overboard. 

The tide pushed the stones into the wharf and, after a while, colonists now had a means to make a road! At the time the streets were nothing more than dirt lined paths so the thought of smoothing out the stones to create a road seemed like a huge upgrade.

The old ballast stones have added character to the streets of Charleston and a great contribution to the history of the city. But as you may have noticed, there are very few of those streets remaining these days.  Why is that? The simplest answer is progress.

While cobblestone streets were an upgrade from the dirt roads they previously walked on, Charleston’s residents wanted something that wouldn't make them spill their groceries or sprain their ankle every time they walked down the street.  So, despite their allure and aesthetics, the cobblestones were removed in many streets and replaced with smoother surfaces.

Watch our Lively Charleston episode on the history of cobblestone streets in Charleston!