Old Charlestonian Project

Dr. Alexander Baron was a very important man in Charleston. He was born in Kincardine, Scotland in 1745. Baron died on January 9, 1819 and was buried at First Scots Presbyterian Church. He graduated from medical school at Edinburgh in 1768 and came to Charleston in 1769. A painting of Baron is located in the Gibbs Museum of Art.

Painting of Dr. Alexander Baron found on Gibbs Museum of Art

When Baron moved to Charleston he purchased the Governors House Inn for 4500 pounds (equivalent to approximately 6,000 US Dollars). The house was owned by two signers of the Declaration of Independence before Baron purchased it.

Governors House Inn

After many years of practice, Baron became known as a specialists in obstetrics which is the branch of medicine and surgery with childbirth and the care of women giving birth. He was on of the founders of the Medical Society of South Carolina and served for 28 years as the president of the St. Andrews Society. The St. Andrews Society is the oldest charitable society in South Carolina.

Baron's Gravestone

Baron's gravestone was located directly in the middle of the graveyard. I specifically chose him because I thought it was interesting how the sextons of the graveyard allowed the plants to grow around the side. I also used this picture because I wanted to show how the other box tomb in the box has nothing growing on the sides so I thought this was significant.

Magnolia Cemetery: Older than The Virgin Mary?

Magnolia Cemetery is by far the most amazing graveyard I have visited in my life. The variety of different gravestones was amazing and the setting on the water just topped it off. The cemetery opened in 1850 and now contains more than 35,000 buried bodies, including seven confederate generals. I was stunned by the art and amount of time that was probably put in on a lot of these gravestones.

The layout of the cemetery was beautiful. Two decent sized ponds along with the marsh towards the back of the cemetery. There were many amazing trees including the giant oak towards the end of our tour. The walk ability was great, we were able to walk up to almost every grave and there was a defined walkway that went around the entire cemetery.

My favorite gravestone was Rosalie Raymond's. Raymond was only an infant when she passed away but the gravestone is very unique. The gravestone is the shape of stroller or crib and contains flowers as well as a painted picture of the infant. She was born January 27th 1887 and died September 5th 1889.

My second favorite gravestone was the mausoleum of the Lipinski family. The amazing little building was built by Tara Lipinski's parents, famous figure skater, and her parents plan to rest inside of it after life. Interestingly enough, I actually had the opportunity to visit her beautiful mansion on Kiawah Island this past summer.

The final gravestone that I was interested in was a pyramid tomb. The grave looked interesting but the inside is what was very intriguing to me. The inside had a giant hole it in where you could see at least 5 layers of concrete underground.