Charleston City Market

The market has stood on this ground since the early nineteenth century, when the land was given to the city on the condition that it be used as a public market in perpetuity. Its long, columned Market Hall at the head and the open sheds stretching behind it are landmarks of Charleston's historic district, and they have witnessed two centuries of the city's daily life.

A persistent myth calls it a former slave market, but that is not its history. Enslaved people were bought and sold elsewhere in the city, and the sites of that trade are marked separately. The City Market was, and remains, a place where goods and provisions changed hands, and today it is a bustling stop for crafts, souvenirs, and Lowcountry flavors.

The most important craft at the market is sweetgrass basketry. Brought to the Carolina coast by enslaved Africans from the rice-growing regions of West Africa, the technique of coiling bundles of sweetgrass and binding them with palmetto strips produced baskets first used to winnow rice, and later kept alive as an art form by the Gullah Geechee communities of the sea islands.

At the market, and along the Lowcountry roads north of the city, Gullah artisans, often women whose families have woven for generations, sit making and selling these baskets by hand. Each one takes many hours, and the intricate coiled forms are true heirlooms. Buying one supports the artisans directly and helps sustain a tradition that is among the most significant African art forms still practiced in the United States.

The market sits at the center of Charleston's historic district, one of the most beautifully preserved city centers in America. Just outside its doors lie cobblestone streets, church steeples, antebellum mansions, and the Battery along the harbor, all within an easy walk. The whole district rewards wandering, and the market makes a natural hub for it.

That beauty carries the weight of history. Charleston was a major port of the transatlantic slave trade, and much of its grandeur was built on enslaved labor and the wealth it generated. The city today interprets that past more fully than it once did, and a visit that includes the market's Gullah artisans, the historic streets, and the harder sites of the slave trade gives a truer picture of the place.

The market welcomes browsers throughout the day, and in the warmer months an evening market sometimes fills the historic Great Hall with additional vendors after dark. It is a good place to find Lowcountry food, local art, and gifts, and above all to see the sweetgrass weavers at work.

Because it lies in the walkable heart of the city, the market fits easily into a day of exploring downtown Charleston on foot. Parking is tight in the district, so many visitors walk from a nearby garage or their lodging. Come with time to browse, to talk with the artisans, and to let the market be your entry into one of the country's most storied cities.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.