West Ashley One-Liners

“Perspective”, “Bits and Pieces”, “Questions” – these are some of the working titles for previous West Ashley Flashback columns. Periodically it becomes necessary to relate the progress made while researching the modern history of St. Andrew’s Parish, West Ashley, tell the one-liner stories and see if a paragraph develops. The following items are a random collection of some of this progress.

The modern establishment known as The Roost Bar & Grille is located in the building where Frank and Eleanor Soubeyroux ran a pet store called “The Kongo.”
In 1953 there was strong opposition to the construction of the South Windermere Shopping Center. A letter to the editor of The News and Courier about zoning in the suburbs suggested it would reduce the property values in the adjacent neighborhoods. However, Claire Nussbaum said “incredibly wonderful to live with the convenience’s in the shopping center next to the neighborhood.”
In 1961 the stores of St. Andrews Center published “Famous Charleston Recipes.” This collection included information about the individual stores in the Center, recipes, and discount coupons.
J M Fields in the Ashley Plaza Mall had a soda fountain bar. Frank Shine worked as a short order cook in the Byrnes Downs Grill.
Mrs. Till ran a kindergarten out of her home at 23 Riverdale in Avondale.
Mrs. Waring ran an “egg factory” and sold flowers to help with the cost of maintaining her property that would later become the site of Charles Towne Landing.
Roy Hart served a lot of memorable food including ham salad sandwiches.
Michael J and Irene Tezza purchased the first home in South Windermere for $18,350.
A Hotpoint “Golden Anniversary Home” was constructed on Chadwick Drive by Frisch Construction Company. An ad in the May 8, 1955 issue of the News and Courier announced the open house dates.
Judge Struh served as a magistrate in St. Andrew’s Parish. In one of Betty Wilson’s scrapbook, that she lovingly made for her husband to commemorate their first wedding anniversary (paper), there was a ticket for trespassing issued to her husband in 1941 when he took her to Edgewater Park to show her the view. The ticket ordered him to appear in Judge Struh’s magistrate court.
The “Supplementary Map Showing Certain Corrections in the Original Map Known as Byrnes Downs Sub-Div. St. Andrew’s Parish Charleston County SC” from January 1944 again shows Blocks A-F on the north side of Savannah Highway. This particular plat does not show either church, only homes along Savannah Highway. St. Andrew’s Blvd is labeled the “New Highway”.
The Wessel family lived in the home located on the farmland that became South Windermere neighborhood and shopping center.
The Crull family opened Charleston Hardware Co. on Wappoo Road.
The cabins that housed the farm laborers, located along Savannah Highway on the Voorhees property (later Harrison Acres) were known as Red Row because they were painted a dull red color. Red Row was torn down in April of 1947. E. W. King, Jr farmed the land under Mr. Harrison’s ownership.
Frank Mathews was credited with “excellent photographs” in the October 1943 brochure published by the Exchange Club of St. Andrew’s Parish.
T.W. Limehouse had a General Merchandise store on Magnolia Garden Road (US. 61).
After WWII ended, Supper clubs and Boy Scout troops meet in the hall that was located on the POW camp prior to it being torn down.
Charles J. Ravenel was the proprietor of St. Andrew’s Riding Academy on Old Town Road according to the ad in the October 1943 brochure published by the Exchange Club of St. Andrew’s Parish.
Dupont Grocery claimed to be the oldest grocery store in St. Andrew’s Parish in a 1943 ad.
There once was a skating rink near Byrnes Downs that later became the site for Portaro’s restaurant.
Who remembers Gus and Frazzie (unsure of spelling) Brown? They lived on the Voorhees property.
Margaret Delia Mosimann was one of the founding members of the Charleston Concert Association. She lived for a time with her family in Windermere.
There are two Jewish Cemeteries along Sycamore Drive. The walled cemetery of the Orthodox Synagogue and the Conservative Synagogue that began in 1947. They share a common wall. Leon Steinberg purchased the land for the Conservative Synagogue and developed the Magnolia neighborhood on the land adjacent to this cemetery.
In 1932, Alexander Sprunt, Jr. started recording “Siskaya The Crescent St. Andrew’s Parish A Book of the Place and its History Planned and executed by Alexander Sprunt, Jr.” He broke ground in December of 1932 on this home that looks today as it did in the photographs he took during his documentation of construction.