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April 1865. Charleston, South Carolina. "Post Office (old Exchange and Custom House), East Bay Street, showing the only Palmetto tree there is in the city." Wet plate negative by George Barnard, from photographs of the Federal Navy and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy. View full size.
In the May 8, 1858 edition of The Illustrated London News, three years before the War began, Scottish author Charles Mackay reported that "in East-Bay Street, nearly opposite the office of the Charleston Courier, stands, carefully guarded by a fence, a magnificent palmetto in luxuriance of growth." This essay and others were republished the following year as "Life and Liberty in America."
According to "Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine," the Palmetto Shade Restaurant was owned during the war by one R. Daly.
Below is the same view from May of 2010.
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