Years ago, the Charleston and Seashore Railroad Company carried passengers from Mount
Pleasant to Sullivan’s Island and the Isle of Palms.
owned by the Smith sisters, now an artists’ studio at Station 18-and-a- half and Middle Street, and a variety store, located across from the city’s current playground. The Augusta Hotel’s location is now the parking lot for Station 22 Restaurant. He said back in those days, the
stores delivered groceries, and, each Christmas, store owners showed their appreciation to their loyal customers by giving them a Whitman sampler and a calendar. By that time of year, many businesses were struggling to make it through the winter. “In those days, the vacation season ended on Labor Day. It was a hard time for businesses after that,” Wil- liams noted. Williams also “remembers,” though only through stories passed down through those who preceded him on the island, that a trolley once served Sullivan’s Island. Street names, Stations 9 through 28, hark back to the days of the Charleston and Seashore Railroad Company, which carried passengers from Mount Pleasant, across Cove Inlet at
the end of Pitt Street, through Sul- livan’s Island and across Breach Inlet to the Isle of Palms. The trolley served its purpose, enhancing the commercial development of the Isle of Palms, but was rendered obsolete soon after automobiles began travel- ing across the Cove Inlet Bridge in 1926. In the 1930s, the tracks, which ran generally along Middle Street and Jasper Boulevard on Sul- livan’s Island, were torn up and sold to the Japanese as scrap metal. Williams, who has written a book
about Sullivan’s Island, pointed out another major change in recent de- cades. He said the demographics of the island are different, with many of his childhood friends leaving the island for financial reasons. “It’s sad that the people I grew up with either have died or live in Mount Pleasant or other parts of the country,” he commented, adding that he also owns a home in Dil- lon, South Carolina, where many families have maintained their roots for decades or longer. “Back in the 1940s, houses
www.SullivansIslandHomes.com |
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www.CarolinaHomesAndInteriors.com
used to sell on Sullivan’s Island for $7,000 to $10,000. Now some of them go for $2 million or so. In Dillon you can buy a really nice house for $100,000.” “It used to be that a lot of people had second homes here,” he said. “Now people can’t afford them. You have to have pretty deep pockets if you’re paying $25,000 a year in property taxes.” Government entities such as
Atlanticville and Moultrieville are gone, the mom-and-pop grocery stores have disappeared, the hotels are only a memory and the fort is little more than a tourist attraction. But despite the changes on Sullivan’s Island since his childhood, Williams remains confident that residents of the island are still better off than most people. “It’s relatively uncomplicated
here,” he mused. “When we cross the bridge, I think, ‘We’re going home. We’re leaving all this behind.’ Sulli- van’s Island is a great place to walk or to ride a bike. There’s something very nice about being on an island.”
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