“H” is for Historic Charleston Foundation [HCF]. The Historic Charleston Foundation sprang from the activities of the Carolina Art Association. In 1944, the association published This is Charleston, a survey of historic buildings. In 1947, HCF was incorporated as a separate organization to preserve buildings still occupied by their owners, instead of museums. To raise money, HCF sponsored its first Festival of Homes and saved important structures such as the Nathaniel Russell House. In 1958 HCF became the first preservation organization in the country to establish a revolving fund for the purchase and restoration of historic properties; the fund was replenished when the buildings were sold to new occupants. In the 1990s the Historic Charleston Foundation began the Neighborhood Impact Initiative, using the goals of the revolving fund and rehabilitation to working-class neighborhoods.
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.