All Titles

Enjoy the walk and let the city of Charleston tell you its story.

Charleston: A Historic Walking Tour will help natives and visitors alike appreciate the history and residents of this beautiful city. With its architecture, palm trees, and cobblestone streets, Charleston is one of the South's great cultural destinations. Its ballrooms and benevolent society halls attest to grand periods of opulence and high living. The theater, libraries, museum, and college show an appreciation for culture and sophistication. But don't let the city's beauty hide its turbulent history. The horrors of bombardment and occupation by conquering armies have left their marks. The city has experienced bleak times and disasters, including fires, a devastating earthquake, and hurricanes, not to mention the challenges of Reconstruction. Yet Charleston has survived its darker days, and now may be the city's finest hour. Neighborhoods from Calhoun Street to the Battery are in better condition today than they have ever been before. This book offers three tours to explore the historic downtown: the Meeting Street loop, the Legare Street loop, and the Ansonborough tour.

Proud Marines and military aficionados know some of the tales of Parris Island military base, and now you can experience its history first-hand through this pictorial history of the infamous island.

Located near the Palmetto State's historic city of Beaufort, the United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina is one of the world's most famous military bases. Having trained Marine recruits since World War I, the base is the oldest major post of the Marine Corps. It is also the first base commissioned exclusively to train United States Marines, and therefore may truly be called ""The Cradle of the Corps."" Parris Island takes the reader on a visual journey through documented photographs that highlight the base's touchstones. Before the American Revolution, the island was partially owned by Col. Alexander Parris, who became the island's namesake. Plantations flourished on Parris Island until the end of the War between the States. A small detachment of Marines first arrived in the late 1800s. It was not until 1915, however, that the Marines arrived for good. Since then, the base has rapidly expanded, first during World War I and more so during World War II. Over the years, much of the physical appearance of the base has changed; yet, through this collection of photographs, former Parris Island Marines will have a chance to relive some of their memories while new recruits can watch the progression of their base unfold.

Seen on the roadways of Charleston County and in museums and galleries worldwide, handmade sweetgrass baskets have been crafted in the Christ Church Parish of Mount Pleasant, SC for more than 300 years.

An ancient African art, sweetgrass basket making utilizes sweetgrass, bullrush, pine needles, and palm leaves to create unique, handmade pieces. Traditionally, artisans use a piece of the rib bone of a cow and a pair of scissors as their only tools for construction. When English settlers founded Christ Church Parish in the late 1600s, they saw a place rich in natural beauty and ideal for harvesting rice, cotton, and indigo. Skilled agricultural laborers were needed, and consequently, South Carolina became the top importer of enslaved West Africans. Finding a landscape similar to their homeland, those who came kept many of their traditional practices. Today, the richness of the West African presence can be seen in Charleston's architecture, basketry, and ironworks.

In 1670, the English ship Carolinabrought colonists to the west bank of the Ashley River.

These settlers and their descendants, along with thousands of enslaved Africans, built a flourishing plantation life in what became St. Andrew's Parish. The Civil War devastated the plantation society, and it seemed that St. Andrew's Parish glory years were in the past until 1889, when construction of a new toll bridge improved access to West Ashley from the peninsula of downtown Charleston. A suburban boom that began in the 1920s expanded and revitalized the community, and many of the original families who built homes, churches, schools, and businesses still live in the community today--a testament to the continued vitality and livability of St. Andrew's Parish, West Ashley.

Beaufort, South Carolina, the Palmetto State's second-oldest town, is a paradigm of the Low Country.

Historic mansions overlook the bay with century-old oaks standing sentinel. Visitors to Beaufort feel right at home, and those with a love of history have a true appreciation of the area. Since its discovery by the Spaniards in the early 1500s, Beaufort has experienced numerous personalities and ways of life, from plantations to war, phosphate mining, hurricanes, and large-scale truck farming. Gullah, a culture and dialect spoken by ex-slaves and their descendants, is kept alive at Penn Center, the first school for the newly emancipated. Three military installations are here: Marine Corps Recruit Parris Island, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and the U.S. Naval Hospital Beaufort. Various forts, churches, and schools served the area in their specific ways. Today, some lie in ruins offering peaceful repose while others remain intact and are well preserved. Beaufort's quaint downtown is a National Historic Landmark District.

See how Myrtle Beach's landscape ignited it into a resort phenomenon.

Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand have become the world's playground. What began over a century ago as local beach retreats between Little River and Georgetown have changed so dramatically that their history is endangered. Wide beaches, warm surf, and abundant wildlife turned this town into a destination that now offers world-class hotels, dining, shopping, entertainment, and recreation. This volume retraces the area's progression from Myrtle Beach's humble beginning in 1901 through the middle years of the 20th century to beyond 1954, when Hurricane Hazel crushed the Grand Strand and determined owners rebuilt their resorts with strength and grandeur. Included among these 240 vintage images are scenes of early dance pavilions, favorite tourist venues, and quaint cottage hotels in old Myrtle Beach. There are yesteryear views of Murrells Inlet and the beaches of Surfside, Garden City, and Pawley's Island, and vintage photographs of Ocean Drive and surrounding beaches in North Myrtle Beach. Susan Hoffer McMillan, author of two vintage postcard histories on coastal South Carolina, delves deeply into the history of Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand to share her fascination with its past through this unprecedented photograph collection. Whether you recall memories of places in this book or just seek to understand the evolution of Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand, you will enjoy forgotten images that illuminate and preserve the past for future generations.

A collection of photographs from past generations that help preserve a disappearing way of life in John's Island, South Carolina.

John's Island (also spelled ""Johns Island"") is the largest Sea Island and the second largest island on the East Coast. The legendary Angel Oak, a restored 18th-century mansion, and an African-American praise house are a few of the historic treasures found beyond the island's wide salt marsh vistas. Its scenic roads wind along rivers under moss-draped oaks, where planters and their descendants have farmed for generations. Since new development is rapidly changing the island's character, residents, including native author Connie Walpole Haynie have collected these photographs from over the years to allow you to go inside the island's history.

Life in colonial Charles Towne was dangerous--epidemic diseases, primitive medical practices, and a harsh environment led to the early demise of rich and poor alike.

When Charleston's founders moved their settlement across the Ashley River to the peninsula in 1680, they hoped for protection from pirate and Native American attacks, as well as increased trade and healthier living conditions. While they were able to secure more protection for the residents and improve trade, health conditions rapidly declined. The graveyards and public burial grounds quickly filled, and today, Charleston's historic cemeteries are almost as common a sight downtown as the churches that define the city. These tree-shrouded glades invite tourists and residents to explore the resting places of Charleston's most illustrious and interesting personalities.Charleston's Historic Cemeteriesoffers a guided pictorial tour of the elaborate gravestones and elegant inscriptions dedicated to Charleston's famous and infamous alike, including William Rhett and the pirate Stede Bonnet, Rhett's adversary. With dozens of illustrated stories about the transformation of funerals, tombstones, and mourning customs in America over the past 300 years, this collection details how Charleston became the home of a historically unique, city-wide gallery of mortuary sculpture.

Hilton Head Island: One of South Carolina's premier tourist destinations with an intriguing history dating as far back as 10,000 years ago.

Hilton Head Island's scenery and leisure industry attract more than 1.5 million visitors each year to play golf, relax on the beaches, or just soak up the atmosphere. Before the fairways and hotels ever arrived on the scene, however, the island already had a long and interesting history when Native Americans first began to visit the area. In Hilton Head Island, Natalie Hefter and the Coastal Discovery Museum revisit this history, charting the area's development from its first plantation in 1717, through the boom years of shipbuilding and Sea Island cotton to the Civil War. In over 200 vintage
photographs, the authors document the impact of the Union occupation, the establishment of Mitchelville (the island's "contraband" and Freedmen community), the dramatic effects of the first bridge to the island, and the development of the tourist industry that now typifies this popular South Carolina destination.

In this volume of vintage, black-and-white photographs, readers are fortunate to experience a Laurens County of a different era. The rhythmic patter of horse hooves and squeak of wooden wagons meant people were hard at work, and the ringing of a bell called students to a one-room schoolhouse. The landscape encompassed patchworks of farms and bustling mill villages before the region found the conveniences of modern technology. Some of those who fashioned the area into its present state-where pride in culture and heritage stand at the forefront-take center stage in this pictorial history. Laurens County will spark the memories of those who lived its history while illustrating the tales with images for future generations.

The history of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, can be summed up in four words: rice, sea, golf, and hammocks.

The rivers threading through coastal South Carolina created an ideal environment for cultivating rice, and by the mid-18th century, vast plantations were producing profitable crops and wealthy landowners. But those plantations also produced malaria-carrying mosquitoes, so the landowners sent their families to the seashore for the summer and built the first houses on Pawleys Island starting in 1822. The end of slavery doomed the rice culture, and the old plantations were sold to rich Northerners for hunting and fishing retreats. By the 1960s, many of the old plantations were turned into golf courses, reviving the economy. But the beating heart of Pawleys Island remains the rhythm of the sea and what one early visitor called "the only beach in the world."

Discover the history of Folly Beach and how it transformed over the years from ""Coffin Island"" to a popular vacation destination.

Folly Beach was not named for its carefree inhabitants' lifestyles, but it is a fitting moniker nonetheless. Originally dubbed ""Folly"" for its dense foliage and forests just across the marsh from James Island and Charleston, the six-mile sliver of land has served as an outpost for Civil War soldiers, an inspiration to George Gershwin, and a place of fond memories for thousands of residents, vacationers, and day-trippers seeking time to relax in the sea and sand. Long before Folly became a place for respite and relaxation, however, it served as a quarantine island for sick sailors, forebodingly referred to as ""Coffin Island."" By the 1950s, Folly's dark history was sufficiently replaced with an amusement park, bowling alley, and moonlight dances out on the pier.

From Tory plantation to a thriving and diverse city, discover Greenville's transformation through time and the prominent people who called the city home.

In a state famous for secession and Old South ideals, Greenville stands as one of South Carolina's most precocious and complex communities. Settled in the inviting shadows of Paris Mountain along the Reedy River, both city and county struggle between the traditional values of a distinct Southern heritage and the progressive trends of a growing and diverse population. Throughout the mid-1800s to the late 1960s, Greenville embraced, even thrived, on this conflict, turning tension into opportunity and creating a remarkable society of savvy entrepreneurs, enlightened educators, talented writers, and triumphant athletes. In this volume of over 200 seldom-seen images, Greenville offers a fascinating glimpse at the people, the schools, and the businesses that dramatically transformed a Tory plantation into a sprawling metropolis. From the rustic portraits of mineral springs and mansion resorts to the snapshots of fast trolleys and overcrowded cantonments, this book highlights a special place that was home to ""Shoeless"" Joe Jackson and Jesse Jackson and played host to global notables, such as Albert Einstein and Ronald Reagan.

Trace the development of Clinton from a tiny town in the 1800s though vintage photographs of everyday life there.

At the edge of the Piedmont region of South Carolina lies the small town of Clinton. A town built upon nurturing others, Clinton boasts a picturesque village and countryside inhabited by warm-hearted residents. Beginning as little more than an intersection of highways, Clinton has become the home to institutions such as the Thornwell Home for Children, Presbyterian College, and the Presbyterian Home. The small-town charm and quaint beauty that once attracted the town founders still permeates throughout. In this attractive volume of vintage photographs, readers will visit the Clinton of yesteryear, experiencing the area as it was when the earliest visitors and settlers came, including Christian followers of several denominations, railroad travelers en route between Laurens and Newberry, and historical figures such as William Plumer Jacobs, founder of both the orphanage and the college. Covering Clinton's history from its beginnings in the 1800s to its presence in the new millennium, this visual history touches upon aspects of everyday life, the remaining and the lost architectural treasures, and the social activities of the decades.