BUTLER PRESERVATION L.C.
A unique Charleston, SC based company specializing in historic property research, preservation consulting, and small-scale restoration. We bring a multi-faceted background in preservation, research and documentation, and real-world trade experience to our projects, and we strive to help clients understand, maintain, and appreciate their historic buildings to the fullest.
Butler Preservation specializes in house histories, evolution reports , National Register nominations, Design Review Board and Board of Architectural Review guidance, writing articles, preservation planning, and tax credit consultation.
Charleston Horse Power: Equine Culture in the Palmetto City
Book release August 23, 2023 from University of South Carolina Press
"Discover the fascinating history and legacy of working equines in Charleston, South Carolina
Featuring thorough research, absorbing storytelling, and captivating photographs, Charleston Horse Power takes readers back to an equine-dominated city of the past, in which horses and mules pervaded all aspects of urban life. Author, scholar, and preservationist Christina Rae Butler describes carriage types and equine roles (both privately owned animals and those in the city’s streets, fire, and police department herds), animal power in industrial settings, regulations for animals and their drivers, horse-racing culture, and Charleston’s equine lifestyles and architecture. Butler profiles the people who made their livings with horses and mules— from drivers, grooms, and carriage makers, to farriers, veterinarians, and trainers.
Charleston Horse Power is a richly illus- trated and comprehensive examination of the social and cultural history and legacy of Charleston’s equine economy. Urban historians, historic preservationists, general readers, and Charleston visitors interested in discovering a vital aspect of the city’s past and present will enjoy and appreciate this impressive work."
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- From USC Press Spring Catalog
Lowcountry At High Tide: A History of Flooding, Reclamation, and Drainage in Charleston, SC
University of South Carolina Press, 2020
2020 George C. Rogers Jr. Award Finalist, best book of South Carolina history
The signs are there: our coastal cities are increasingly susceptible to flooding as the climate changes. Charleston, South Carolina, is no exception, and is one of the American cities most vulnerable to rising sea levels. Lowcountry at High Tide is the first book to deal with the topographic evolution of Charleston, its history of flooding from the seventeenth century to the present, and the efforts made to keep its populace high and dry, as well as safe and healthy.
For centuries residents have made many attempts, both public and private, to manipulate the landscape of the low-lying peninsula on which Charleston sits, surrounded by wetlands, to maximize drainage, and thus buildable land and to facilitate sanitation. Christina Butler uses three hundred years of archival records to show not only the alterations to the landscape past and present, but also the impact those efforts have had on the residents at various socio-economic levels throughout its history.
Wide-ranging and thorough, Lowcountry at High Tide goes beyond the documentation of reclamation and filling and offers a look into the life and the history of Charleston and how its people have been affected by its unique environment, as well as examining the responses of the city over time to the needs of the populace. Butler considers interdisciplinary topics from engineering to public health, infrastructure to class struggle, and urban planning to civic responsibility in a study that is not only invaluable to the people of Charleston, but for any coastal city grappling with environmental change.
Illustrated with historical maps, plats, and photographs and organized chronologically and thematically within chapters, Lowcountry at High Tide offers a unique look at how Charleston has kept—and may continue to keep—the ocean at bay.
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to learn more and purchase:https://uscpress.com/Lowcountry-at-High-Tide
