The park gained it's name from the early days of European settlement on the peninsula from the sun-bleached shells that washed up on the shores of the meeting point of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. Throughout the early colonial period, the area was used as a dumping ground for excess building material and a landfill until the early 1800's when peninsula terminus was transformed into a garden park. Today, the gardens are filled with gnarled boughs of century old trees and commemorations to notable citizens and heroes of Charleston as well as epitaphs to a few famous pirates that were sent to the gallows here.
This was the first place that I took my mother on our Charleston trip when she came down for Easter and I am glad I did! Along South Battery Street, the north edge of the park, was a wall of chalked full of azalea blossoms on one side and the flower gardens of the Battery mansions on the other! For anyone visiting the peninsula, I highly recommend going to the Gardens for the sake of directional orientation! Knowing how direct yourself throughout the Harbor and Old Town really helps when trying to avoid getting lost in the twisting and turning cobbled streets of the Historic District area!
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