"Zoom out. What’s the big picture here? These sisters, whose family has been in Charleston for seven generations, know the city better than almost anyone. Mary Helen Dantzler and Therese Smythe retired from careers as lawyers, then followed in their mother’s footsteps (a venerable tour guide herself). If you book a tour, you’ll get one sister or the other. They don’t work in tandem. They tried that once, but you know how sibling dynamics go. So they work solo. You can join a group tour for $25 per person by signing up on their website, or call to arrange a private tour for a higher fee. We gathered in Washington Square for roughly a two-hour walk through the cobblestone streets and hidden alleys of Charleston. Tell us about your fellow tourees. I joined a small group, a pair of sisters here for a wedding, a young mother whose husband had gifted her a “mommy vacation,” and a couple from Wisconsin who couldn’t believe that Charleston’s trees stay green year-round. The tour was fun, orienting, informative, with trivia that only a local would know, like the partly exploded cannon lodged in the attic of the Roper House, or slave tags unearthed in a resident’s garden. Our guide Therese grew up on Legare Street (pronounced lah-GREE). She bridged the old and the new (her husband descends from a signer of the Constitution, but she takes Venmo). When explaining the historic term “necessary chair,” Therese pointed to the discreet locations of three public restrooms, which sounds trivial until you need one! No one on my tour had mobility issues, but for those who do remember, this is a walking tour. Sidewalks can be uneven (a combination of low elevation, periodic flooding, and old oak roots). But with advance notice, the sisters can map out smoother routes. You definitely don’t want to attempt to wheelchair over the ruddy bricks of Stoll’s Alley, so give them a heads-up. How are the guides? Therese could not have been more familiar with every nook and cranny. In addition to her sheer volume of raw historic knowledge, she kept our focus with palpable energy and enthusiasm, peppered with lots of Y’alls for emphasis (not at all affected, but genuine). I should point out that “Y’all” doesn’t just mean “I’m addressing you all,” it can be nuanced as “Now everybody listen to this,” or “This next point is really significant,” or “You won’t believe what I’m about to say,” or “Truth is stranger than fiction.” She gave a solid introduction to Charleston history, showed us ghostly remnants of the original wall that protected the city from pirates, and she didn’t avoid discussion about or condemnation of slavery. This wasn’t a whitewashed tour. Anything you’ll be remembering weeks or months or years from now? I loved the fact that local dogs ran to their wrought-iron gates as they heard her voice approaching. She knew them all by name. Residents of the human variety honked their horns in passing, and she waved and called out with her signature “Hey Hey!” A bow-tied gentleman nodded “Good morning.” She has the respect of her community, not only because they know her but because she does not hyperbolize or make things up. So: What is this tour best for? For a balanced, local’s introduction to Charleston, from grand houses to former slave quarters, this is it. The sisters grew up on these very streets and remember when now-famous neighbors, like Stephen Colbert, were just “knuckleheads.”" - Allston McCrady
