The House at 55 East Bay Street

Anna was bored today and we decided to have an adventure. An adventure to Anna is to go shopping So we went downtown, being it is very cold and breezy today and all Charleston shopping is out of doors, the shopping didn't last long. I suggested we drive around and see the sights. We came along an abandoned house on East Bay Drive just north of the Battery. How many viewers are now reading (at Gina and my suggestion "The House on Tradd Street?") If you are you will follow the story. ... Anna parked the car on the beautifully appointed brick carriage drive. The view is of Charleston Bay. The wind is howling, my hair is whipping around my head as I make my way to the back garden. Wanting it to be all I can imagine. Blooming Hydrangeas, Jasmine, Camella's. To my disappointment, as the house has been abandoned for who knows how long, the garden is in complete disarray. Bamboo, over grown, branches and palm fronds everywhere, I knew I should have brought my machete with us today. I felt like Harrison Ford trekking his way through a jungle. In my high heels walking through the mud where the cobble stones used to lay out a path. I was in search of treasure. Treasure to me is a great house with beautiful bones, fine architecture, and a mature garden.......I made my way through the over grown bamboo, pushing it away from my face . I walked up the stairs to the back door and peered though the glass, I could see someone had remodeled the old kitchen , it was now new cherry cabinets with gorgeous new granite, the old stone floors fit in perfectly with the new kitchen, I stood with my camera at the glass door, taking it all in. I decided to photograph the kitchen........ My perfect view was obscured in my camera lens each time I tried to photograph the kitchen I took one photo after another, each one was obscured by a white, gray cloudy mass in from of my lens, though each time I would look again with my eyes, I could see the kitchen perfectly. I tried over and over to photograph the kitchen, someone didn't want me there. Someone, didn't want the kitchen photographed. The person that was there, in the house, didn't want me buy this abandoned house, this new refurbished home from the 1830's that sat on the Charleston Bay. I walked around the other side of the house to see if i could photograph other parts of the house, I made my way through the rest of the overgrown garden, room by room, each one was perfect. Someone had spent a lot of time and money making this house perfect inside. But the outside still needed lots of work. Some tender loving care. Someone like me to help it along. Give it some life. The house let me photograph it from the outside, the walkways, the brick but it didn't want me to have any memories of the interior, it was too new, it wanted to be old again. It wanted me to go away and let someone who didn't believe in ghosts, in spirits, that once lived here to come live there. So I left in search of another House, that would love me back.