The first public park in Charleston, White Point Garden, existed long before my birth (the first part of the public park was created around 1837). Of course, growing up I never referred to the park as “White Point Garden”; to me, it was always “the Battery,” which included not just the park but also the raised seawall or “High Battery” and the connecting lower seawall on Murray Boulevard known as “Low Battery.”
In 1670, when the English ship “The Carolina” sailed into the harbor and up the Ashley River to what would become the first settlement of Charles Town, the tip of the peninsula was covered in white oyster shells and so ...