This wee’s theme for LensProtoGo’s 52 Week Project was “Antique”. There is definitely an abundance of “antique” in Charleston. So I figured I’d just walk around downtown one day after work and wait for something to strike me. I tried taking some pics of antiques/antique shops, but then I remembered a painting on the side of a building that I actually got the story about from our awesome horse carriage tour guide (seems cheesy but definitely worth going on one to learn about the city).

This is the “Hat Man” painting on the side of a building on Church St. & Broad St. in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. What I was told on a tour that there used to be a haberdashery here, and because slaves did the shopping and had limited reading skills, this illustration is how they identified the shop as a hat shop. The man is created entirely of hat shapes and was discovered during some renovations under layers of paint and has been touched up ever since. Don’t quote me on that, but that’s what the host of a carriage ride said.