Waterfront Park & the Pineapple Fountain

Joe Riley Waterfront Park is the strip of lawn, live oaks, and harbor frontage between Concord Street and the Cooper River, and its main entrance is where Vendue Range dead-ends at the water. Most people come for one object: the Pineapple Fountain, a cast-stone and bronze fountain in a plaza next to the City Gallery, about 300 feet south of that entrance. It costs nothing to see, there is no gate, and the whole park is flat.

What surprises first-time visitors is that there are two fountains, and the second one is the one built for playing in.

Charred pilings and gravel lots, 1980

This land was a working waterfront that stopped working. Wharves and shipping terminals lined the Cooper River along this block until the port business moved on. By 1980 what remained was obsolete dock structures, charred pilings, and surface parking, and the city was walled off from its own harbor.

Joseph P. Riley Jr. became mayor in 1975 and went after the property early. The city bought it in 1979, the last piece of Cooper River waterfront available along this segment of the water, and it was already slated for high-rise commercial and residential development. Riley's line about what he wanted instead is quoted in the city's own park directory: "this generation's gift to the future."

He hired Sasaki Associates, with Stuart O. Dawson leading the design and Edward Pinckney Associates working alongside. Their plan pushed city streets through to the water as pedestrian walks and closed four blocks of Concord Street to traffic. Ground broke in 1988 on a roughly $13 million project, and the opening was set for May 4, 1990.

Then Hurricane Hugo came ashore in September 1989 and did about $1 million of damage to the half-built park. Crews rebuilt, and Waterfront Park opened on May 11, 1990, one week behind the pre-storm date. It has since drawn seven major design awards, including the American Society of Landscape Architects' Landmark Award in 2007.

Charleston City Council voted in 2015 to rename the park for Riley, who held the mayor's office for four decades, and the rededication was held on Vendue Plaza on April 28, 2018. Signs and city maps now read Joe Riley Waterfront Park. Almost everyone in Charleston still calls it Waterfront Park.

The two fountains

The Pineapple Fountain is the one on the postcards. Water sheets off the crown and down the sides of the fruit into a shallow round basin, and it is lit at night. It was designed by a Sasaki team of Stu Dawson, Jay Faber, Varoujan Hagopian, and Mark Dawson. You will find it in its own plaza in the middle of the park, directly east of the City Gallery at 34 Prioleau Street. The basin is shallow enough to stand in, and wading is normal here in warm weather.

The Vendue Fountain is the other one, and it is the better bet for children. It sits at the north end of the park at the Vendue Range entrance, a wide circular basin with jets that the city operates as a splash pad. Kids run through it in bathing suits all summer while their parents sit on the low wall. If you are working through our Charleston with kids plans, this is the free splash stop that buys you an hour.

As for the pineapple itself: the fruit is a hospitality motif all over Charleston, on gateposts, ironwork, and bedposts. The story you will hear from carriage drivers is that a sea captain home from the Caribbean would spike a pineapple on his gatepost to announce that he was back and receiving visitors. That version is repeated everywhere and is not supported by any colonial record anyone has produced. What the record does show is plainer: pineapples were rare and ruinously expensive in the eighteenth century, wealthy hosts displayed them to show they could afford one, and the association with welcoming guests grew out of that display. The fountain is a good monument to a real custom and a shaky anecdote.

The pier, the swings, and the promenade

The pier runs out into the Cooper River from the Vendue Range entrance under a long open-air pavilion, and inside that pavilion are the wooden swings the park is known for, hung in a row with picnic tables and benches between them. On a weekend afternoon you will wait for one. From the end you can see the Ravenel Bridge to the north, the USS Yorktown across the harbor at Patriots Point, and Fort Sumter out at the harbor mouth. A floating dock at the end puts you closer to the water.

Running south from there is the promenade, about 1,200 feet of walkway along the water's edge lined with palmettos and benches. Inland of it, a wide brick path passes eight small gardens under four rows of live oaks, which is where the shade is on a hot day. The park's south end gives way to roughly five acres of restored salt marsh, so the manicured part fades into tidal grass rather than stopping at a fence.

Visiting today

A first visit is straightforward: walk in at Vendue Range, go out on the pier, sit in a swing if one is open, then follow the promenade south to the Pineapple Fountain and back. That is 30 to 60 minutes. The Parks Conservancy puts annual visitation above four million, which makes this the most visited park in the city, and you will feel that between mid-morning and sunset.

Early morning is the answer for both photographs and quiet. The park faces east across the harbor, so the sun comes up behind the Pineapple Fountain, which is why photographers are there at dawn. By mid-morning the carriage and walking tours are rolling and the fountain plaza rarely empties out; through the evening it belongs to wedding and engagement photographers. The city does permit weddings in the park through its recreation department, capped at 25 people including the couple, which is why you may find a ceremony set up at the fountain on a Saturday.

Two practical notes. The City Gallery at 34 Prioleau Street, inside the park, is a free contemporary art space run by the city's Office of Cultural Affairs, open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., and it is a decent 20-minute detour in the rain or the heat. And the park is genuinely flat, at grade with the street, with benches at short intervals and shade along the oak walk, which makes it one of the easier downtown attractions for anyone who tires quickly on Charleston's brick sidewalks.

Is Waterfront Park worth it?

Yes, with almost no caveats, because it is free and it is on the way to everything else on the lower peninsula. Families get the most out of it: the splash fountain, the lawn, and the pier will absorb a couple of hours that cost nothing. Photographers get the second-most, and should come at sunrise. It is one of the anchors of our list of free things to do in Charleston.

The honest caution is about expectations. This is a park, not an attraction with exhibits or a program. There is no visitor center, no tour, and nothing to buy inside it. If you arrive at 11 a.m. on a July Saturday expecting the empty, glowing fountain you saw online, you will get a crowd and hard overhead light instead. Come early, or come at dusk when the fountains are lit.

Getting there and what's nearby

Walking is the sane way in. From the City Market it is under ten minutes on foot down East Bay and left onto Vendue Range. If you are driving, the two city garages closest to the park are Concord Cumberland at 1 Cumberland Street, a block north of the entrance, and East Bay / Prioleau at 25 Prioleau Street, which puts you out beside the middle of the park near the Pineapple Fountain. Metered spaces on Concord and Prioleau exist and turn over slowly.

South of the park the waterfront walk continues toward The Battery and White Point Garden, about 15 minutes away on foot, passing Rainbow Row a block inland. String the park, Rainbow Row, and the Battery together and you have the best free morning in Charleston. For everything else within reach, see our attractions guide and the full list of things to do in Charleston.