Francis Marion Hotel

The Francis Marion has earned its standing the old-fashioned way — through a century of holding down the corner of King and Calhoun across from Marion Square. Opened in 1924 as the largest hotel in the Carolinas, it remains the only high-rise inside Charleston's historic district, which means upper-floor suites deliver panoramic views of the harbor, the bridge, and the length of King Street that newer boutique competitors simply cannot match. Rooms run classic Charleston — two-poster beds, gold mirrors, blue-and-beige palette — but bathrooms are genuinely small, a recurring point of honest frustration that the property tends to deflect with 'historic character' rather than renovation.