Magnolia Cemetery
70 Cunnington Ave. Downtown.
(843) 722-8638
Sometimes the best way to explore the history of a place is to look at all the dead people, and Charleston’s got a variety of cemeteries to explore. The biggest and most impressive, by far, is the sprawling Magnolia Cemetery (circa 1849) located way out on the neck of the peninsula. It’s here that you’ll find the graves of former governors of South Carolina, Hunley sailors, Confederate generals, and literary luminaries like Cheaper by the Dozen author Frank Gilbreth. For a real treat, local Confederate reenactors (led by none other than state Sen. Glenn McConnell) organize an annual Confederate Ghost Walk each October. Visitors get a lantern-lit tour of the graveyard at night and watch skits performed at various grave sites. If the South’s dead ever rise again, we guarantee this is where they’ll do it.
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