Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon

Looking for history? You’ve come to the right place. Unfortunately the guides are just OK, but more on that later.
Any time I get to set foot in someplace where George Washington tread, it always gives me a little chill. We don’t have much of that in California…
Lots of important history happened at the Old Exchange. Such an interesting place. During your visit, you can take a self-​guided tour of the main and upper floor of the building along with a guided tour of the dungeon down below. The only drawback? For the fairly steep admission price, there’s really not much to see here. The main and upper floor have some pretty interesting pieces, but nothing that’s going to blow your mind.
Downstairs in the dungeon was more of the same, with a few mannequins thrown in, but the tour is guided. Guided by local college students. A great idea in theory. Now I’m all for letting history students guide a tour, but please can we have some who are actually good tour guides and actually seem passionate about what they’re describing. Our tour guide had the personality of a loaf of bread and my wife and I actually contemplated a daring escape from the dungeon to evade our guide.

Great history tour! Everything but the dungeon tour is self guided, but that’s ok. The dungeon tour was history filled with history and pirate stories!

It was a very nice experience, there are a lot of things I learned that are not often discussed.
Everything was very well organized and they had a large selection of articles. The customer service was great and everyone was very knowledgeable when we asked questions. I didn’t not have enough time to see everything so I will definitely return next month!

Great history tour of the historic dungeon and the 3 floors of well preserved Charleston historical items were extremely fascinating. The ballroom is preserved well enough that if you squint and tilt your head, you can almost see George Washington and the rest of the revolutionary war heroes dancing on the wooden floors and drinking brandy by the fire. We also really loved the Declaration of Independence that we were able to sign (set up on the desk) and the puzzle hunt we followed downstairs.

I would have given a higher rating but our tour guide was not the most coherent. I had a really hard time following the guide. However I did learn a few interesting things and seeing the brick work in the dungeon was amazing. Overall liked the museum.

Oh! I thought I had reviewed this months ago. Whoops.
The Old Exchange was my very first stop after landing in Charleston back in September. It was pouring outside, so it made sense to visit a museum. Unilocal guided me here, and I was not led astray.
So much Charleston history! Like, so much. If you like to learn about the past, you need to make your way here.
Also, we went downstairs for the 11:30 AM guided tour (hosted by a man in historical garb) and we turned out to be the only ones who signed up for it. Pretty nice to have such a private showing of the dungeon. The exhibit figures were funny looking — but just added to the charm of this place.
Upstairs, there are plenty of relics to view, as well as a nice gift shop.
Definitely stop here if you have the time!

I mean when your visiting a new place and on Unilocal it pops up DUNGEON, who doesn’t go yes let’s go.
Now this place has some history involved and it was $ 10 bucks to get in and then the actual museum self pretty much sucks, there’s not much to look at it is pretty lame stuff. However if you go downstairs you can take a tour of the dungeon. You need to wait for a guided tour which takes about 20 minutes but it’s worth it and pretty cool to imagine Captn. Jack Sparrow rolling in with a bottle of rum to claim his taxes.
The smell, the bricks, the history and dare I say charm of this place gives you a real feel of Charlestons history. When you docked your boat you had to arrive through this ol place and come in and talk to the gentlemen and pay your fee while you witnessed up to 100 prisoners being kept behind bars.
If you have 20 minutes to spare come check out this dungeon it’s legit.

Tread on me, you say? No, tread on you. Lovely interior.

Cool place for the whole family, great history, plan on two hours to see and read most of everything.

When I heard dungeon I thought it would be cool. Took the trolley into downtown Charleston and stopped at this museum on the way to the city market.
The two self guided floors of the above ground museum were just kind of dull. Lots of reading, not much interaction, and it just felt like a chore to read all of the stuff. Some of the artwork and rooms were interesting though.
The dungeon was actually pretty cool, but our tour guide was not. She mumbled a lot and did not have a loud voice. The tour for the most part was pretty boring and I fell like it had too much information to take in. The pirate stuff was cool though! Overall, this museaum was kind of disappointing.

The place is rich with history, but honestly the tour is pretty weak. Didn’t really have that intriguing factor that captivates you on one of these tours. Although that is usually due to the person giving the tour. A bit dry. I felt like reading a board would have been just as good, but it was an extremely interesting place. So much has happened there and there was so much to learn about. I can’t go on enough about how rich the place is with history. I could spend hours just reading everything there and be perfectly happy, but hey it was only $ 5 with a student discount and $ 10 regularly so there really isn’t any complaining to go with it. Worth your time. Takes about half an hour for the actual tour, and who knows how long to see and read everything.

You had me at dungeon. I enjoyed this museum! $ 10 to walk around plus guided dungeon tour. $ 5 with student ID!
This was an assembly building. There are two floors to check out and learn the history. Some cool artifacts on display but the dungeon is definitely the best part. Our guide was very informative and I liked the tour. Quite a bit of pirate history too! Oh, Stede Bonnet — what a guy — a pirate for fun, not necessity.

I like to do at least one educational /​historic thing when I travel somewhere for the first time and this stop checked that off my list quite nicely.
The «dungeon» tour is guided and was honestly not nearing as creepy as I wanted it to be but never the less gave some good information on charleston’ history and the buildings use in particular. The upper floors are self guided. Not a lot of artifacts or overwhelming amount of info, thank you! There are several cool photo ops like signing the Declaration of Independence or the post office, also the tour guides are in colonial garb and will pose for pictures if you really want to be a nerd.
This is near rainbow row and air conditioned so if nothing else a good break from walking around the city during the day or if it rains. I’m glad we stopped by.

This is worth the $ to come in and just see the dungeon! You can see parts of the old city wall down there, and it has no much history! American Patriots were held there during the Revolutionary War, it was used to store gun powder… Trust me, it is worth the visit.
The museum is great as well, but if it is crowded, good luck. You have to do a lot of reading of plaques and posters, and you have to get really close to read the fine print. If that is not your thing, just walk around and take in the beauty of the building!

Was definitely a cool place to see with lots of exhibits/​paintings on the first and second floors and a tour of the provost Dungeon for $ 10/​person. The tour guide was a bit dramatic, but the tour was interesting and did teach us a lot about Charleston’s history. Overall, I’m glad we went, but it wouldn’t be first on my list of recommendations to someone visiting Charleston.

$ 10 per person and includes guided tour. Staff was very knowledgeable and friendly. I enjoyed the history lesson on the building. If you decide to stay with the guided tour, give yourself 45 – 60 minutes for the museum.

The Dungeon is like visiting the real-​life inspiration for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland!
The enthusiastic, scholarly young fellow running the dungeon tour was overspilling (a word?) with knowledge. If I retained 20% of what he told us I’d be happy. It’s really much more than a talk than a walk.
Overall the historical artifacts and paintings shown inside this building are fascinating even for someone like me who isn’t really that into history. Allow yourself at least an hour and a half here if not two, to do the dungeon tour and read a lot of the stuff on the walls.
A must see for Historic Charleston.

A must go in Charleston!
For the price, you can’t beat it. You get to see a lot of history in this building.
The tour was great, tour guide really know his stuff. It was fun to go back to the late 1700s for a while.
If you have a student ID, you get in for only $ 5.

This place impressed me so much, wow. My husband and I came and used our AAA discount for admission. It came with a tour of the dungeon. The history and preservation was amazing. I loved how they had the mannequins set up throughout to illustrate the various moments in time.
Throughout the museum, there are some pretty cool historical items to view. My faves, besides the dungeon were the gowns worn by some of the women from that period. So cool!

If you’re not going to embrace the history of Charles Town, I wonder why you’re here. This is a National Historic Landmark after all.
There are hundreds of years of history for you to see here.
–It was once an old post office.
–The dungeons held some of histories most notorious pirates, most of whom plundered and pillaged along the Carolina coast.
–George Washington was entertained in the Great Hall on the second level.
–Delegates of South Carolina also ratified the US Constitution in that very room.
–You can see the old sea wall in the bowels of the dungeon
Aside from the quick guided tour of the dungeons, it’s more or less a self guided tour. But, all things considered, it was a pretty neat way to get out of the heat and get historic for a time.