Facing the cobblestones of Market Street in Charleston's historic district, a granite-faced antebellum commercial building dating to circa 1844 has held its ground through nearly two centuries of Southern history — and the Planters Inn, set within its walls, makes no attempt to disguise that longevity. The deep-hunter-green awning, gas lanterns, and grid-paned storefront windows visible from the street belong to a building that predates the hotel's current incarnation by well over a century, and the interior follows that cue with conviction. Rooms are furnished with dark mahogany four-poster beds — some with carved spiral columns, others with ebonized square frames — topped with embroidered white matelassé coverlets and striped bed skirts in sage and cream. Chinoiserie panels hang above walnut dressers, white-painted plaster fireplaces anchor the sitting areas, and pendant lanterns in aged brass drop from crown-moulded ceilings that carry the proportions of antebellum domestic architecture rather than hotel construction. The courtyard behind the main building is the property's quietest argument for its own character: a long reflecting pool edged in clipped boxwood parterres, crape myrtles rising through the geometry, and cast-iron garden chairs arranged beneath arched colonnades painted in warm terracotta. The Peninsula Grill, housed in a garden room dense with tropical planting and furnished with black bentwood chairs at white-clothed tables, extends that mood into dining. Across its 64 rooms and suites, the hotel maintains a register closer to a well-inherited Charleston townhouse than to managed hospitality.

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Welcome to Planters Inn Relais & Chateaux, a sanctuary of hushed elegance and refined Southern style with soaring ten-foot ceilings, silk window dressings, dozens of working fireplaces, a stunning collection of antiques, and exquisite Baker Historic Charleston décor including a sumptuous four poster bed in every guest room.