Rainbow Row

The row of thirteen pastel-colored Georgian townhouses on East Bay Street serves as a bright interruption to the Charleston waterfront. Dorothy Porcher Legge bought the first derelict home in the nineteen thirties, painting it a soft pink to match the Caribbean aesthetics she admired. Other neighbors eventually followed suit, scrubbing away the grime of time and maritime decay to reveal the structures underneath. These homes were once the primary storefronts and residences for local merchants, sitting directly against the harbor’s edge.