One of the places that visitors to Charleston enjoy the most, and a site that I take tourists by on my walking tours, is scenic and historic Washington Square. The centerpiece of the park is the obelisk dedicated to the Washington Light Infantry, a military unit created in Charleston after the Revolutionary War. People often remark that it reminds them of the Washington Monument, which is quite an irony, considering that near the obelisk at the northwest border of Washington Square is the 1820’s Fireproof Building. That building and the Washington Monument itself were both designed by Charleston architect Robert Mills. Both the designs are amazingly unique and somewhat similar in their massive construction, the Washington monument made with 80,000 tons of stone and the Fireproof Building made with 850,000 bricks.
