Fences serve many useful functions, but white picket fences in particular loom large in the imagination and the fabled middle class “American Dream” in Daydreaming on the Porch

Have you ever realized just how much fences, gates and walls reveal about the builders and owners of the property enclosed within?

I certainly have. I’ve always been drawn to, and fascinated by fences and gates of all kinds. I grew up in New Orleans, and our suburban home had a typical-for-the-neighborhood wooden, vertical slat fence for privacy. No aesthetics involved, it just functioned to not only keep dogs in, but people out. It was high enough so that we could just see the second floors of neighboring houses and the top halves of the oak trees all around our house. Just about everyone had these kinds of fences. You’d never see chain link fences in these upper middle class neighborhoods. Containment and lack of visibility beyond the fence were the goals of these privacy wooden fences.

But in many of the older, historic sections of New Orleans, iron fences dominated, just as in downtown Charleston where I formerly lived.

Master iron worker Philip Simmons who died in 2009 at age 97, designed many of the beautiful and intricate iron gates and balconies in Charleston’s historic district. His level of crilasftsndbship is revered.

https://charlestonmag.com/features/simmons_ironwork

In New Orleans, there were countless iron fences and gates in the uptown and Gardrn District areas. Even if you weren’t trying, you couldn’t help but notice this ironwork. But one fence and gate in the French Quarter always stood out and has become an iconic piece of ironwork. It is called “The Cornstalk Fence,” and in my youth when I would often walks the fabled streets of the Quarter, admiring the architecture and basking in the sheer novelty and richness of the history contained within this oldest quadrant of the city, I always marveled at the Cornstalk Fence whenever I passed it.

The Legend of the Cornstalk Fence

https://strangetruetours.com/cornstalk_fence_blog/amp/

I could write about the symbolism and utility that are combined in chain link fences, those ugly, utterly functional and necessary fences that are so common everywhere, but I will let what I’ve just said stand.

There are a number of very fine old brick walls around houses and gardens in Charleston’s historic district, many more than 200 years old. These are the ultimate in solid,impenetrable, and fortress-like walls, that hide many a beautiful yard and garden.

But by far my favorite fence is the charming wooden white picket border and enclosure, the fence of the idyllic “American Dream.” How many romanticized paintings have been done highlighting these tasteful yard and garden appendages that immediately confer a special status upon what might at first seem like the most ordinary of cottages or bungalows.

Surrounded by a white picket fence they are transformed, in my view anyway, into not mere houses, but enchanting abodes. Picket fences are inviting and comforting. They are welcoming, and convey the message that the inhabitants of the house down the block, with its white picket fence, have taste and appreciation for the finer things in life.

Can’t you just picture in your mind a white clapboard house with a picket fence surrounding a lush yard and flower-filled garden, with perhaps a huge oak tree and tire swing on a lower branch in the middle of the yard, upon which laughing children are swinging on an endless and carefree summer afternoon?

Ah, fences,walls and gates — they’re so much more than they appear to be.

My album of favorite Charleston fences and gates is only a small selection, but the photos I have taken over the years illustrate well my interest in them. These fences often beautifully frame the perimeters of houses and gardens in my home town, and, as with picket fences especially, create a cozy, dreamlike enclosure.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/460z1MD8q9