Shopping at Vendue Range

This photograph, looking east out into the Cooper River, shows the spacious colonnade which provided shelter from rain and sun for both auctioneers and buyers. “On sale days they [the merchants] brought their goods out and under the colonnade,” writes Jack Thomson, “where buyers could congregate and buy, all the time enjoying the shade and harbor breeze.” In this picture Thomson sees structures that are presently at 16 and 18 Vendue Range; they were rented by “auctioneer & com. [commission] boot & shoe merchant,” Nathaniel Hunt. Next door, at 22 Vendue Range, James W. Brown did business also as a commission merchant—what we would today call a consignment shop. Across the street is John H. Lange’s barroom, where thirsty shoppers might tarry for a libation.

This is the caption as printed in 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War. It has not yet been through this site’s research and fact-checking pass.