What's up with the blue line?

Charleston takes preservation very seriously. An unfortunate byproduct of this committment, so they say, is the continued presence of ghosts in our quiet town. To ward off these spirits, residents throughout our history have painted porch ceilings in a color called "Hant" blue (sometimes miswritten as "Haint"), an old Gullah word meaning spirit.

One such ghost is Joseph Brown Ladd, who in 1786 partook in a duel when Charleston was already 106 years. Joseph fell far short of the century mark, dying at twenty-two after refusing medical treatment for wounds sustained in the duel. He was famous for whistling through the streets of Charleston and is said to be doing the same today.