Posted by: Nic Butler | 10 September 2009

Ashley Ice Cream

Recently our friends at CharlestonCurrents.com published a photograph of a faded advertisement painted on the side of an old corner grocery store at the intersection of Coming and Spring streets. They challenged readers to identify the product being promoted in the ad, which appeared to read “You’ll Enjoy Ashley Real Cream.” Having driven past this location innumerable times, I recognized the image immediately, but, having the unfair advantage of library and archival resources at my fingertips, I did not enter the contest. When the e-zine received no responses, however, I went directly to the old city directories and solved the mystery with just a bit of digging.

The Ashely Ice Cream Company appears in the Charleston city directories of 1922 through 1945. Their offices and “factory” were at 572-74 Meeting Street, but they supplied corner grocery stores throughout the town. They weren’t the only ice cream business in town, though, so the hand-painted advertisement on the side of the grocery store at the corner of Coming and Spring Street was undoubtedly part of their promotional campaign. The city directory of 1948, the next volume we have after 1945, does not include the Ashley Ice Cream Company. Rather, a new business called Swift’s Ice Cream Company is listed at that same address on Meeting Street once occupied by Ashley.

This morning, Andy Brack, publisher of CharlestonCurrents.com, told me he had spoken with former Senator Fritz Hollings last night. Upon mentioning the name of this old ice cream company, the senator immediately recalled their tasty flavors and fond memories of summer nights in Charleston with Ashley Ice Cream. Thanks, Andy!

Posted by: Nic Butler | 10 July 2009

Debut of the Lowcountry Digital Library

After much planning and a lot of tedious grant writing, the Lowcountry Digital Library is now open to the public. This electronic archive was created and is hosted by the Special Collections department at the College of Charleston, but it aims to be a multi-institution collaborative project. The website currently contains more than 7,000 high resolution images, and uses the state-of-the-art ContentDM software to provide users with robust metadata and great image-zooming tools. Within the next three years the Lowcountry Digital Libary aims to hold more that 50,000 images from a number of archives in the southeastern part of South Carolina. The content ranges from architectural drawings, photographs, and maps to manuscripts, ephemera, and artifacts, all emphasising local history and local collections.

Currently the Lowcountry Digital Library contains more than one thousand images from the Charleston Archive at the Charleston County Public Library. The first collection of photographs we uploaded was the “Photographic Record of the Cooper River Bridge,” a two-volume scrapbook of the construction of the first bridge over that river in 1928–1929. Our collection of nearly 1,500 architectural photographs of Charleston, taken by Charles N. Bayless between 1979 and 1988, is our second project. Charleston Archive staff member Celeste Wiley has already scanned and composed metadata for more than 1,000 of these images, and the rest will be uploaded over the next several weeks.

The launch of the Lowcountry Digital Library is a great boon to the Charleston Archive. In the coming months, we will be uploading many more images of rare and unique materials from our collection. We invite you to browse these materials and to send us your comments!

If you’d like to learn more about the creation of this digital archive, check out Diane Knich’s story in the Charleston Post and Courier this week, titled “Digital Library Launched.”

Posted by: Nic Butler | 7 May 2009

Jussi Bjorling Society Event

Jussi Bjorling

Jussi Bjorling

Swedish operatic tenor Jussi Bjorling (1911–1960) enjoyed a successful international career during his lifetime. Many years after his passing, his memory is kept alive by  an international collection of fans who comprise the Jussi Bjorling Society. In mid-May 2009, members of this organization will gather in Charleston, South Carolina, for a three day conference to celebrate Bjorling’s life and work. Although Bjorling never sang in Charleston, there is actually historical precedent for Swedish-Charleston cultural interchange. Novelist Fredrika Bremer and soprano Jenny Lind visited here in 1850, followed in 1851 by educator Rosalie Roos. Also during the 1850s, while Swedish iron was being transformed into ornamental fences by African-American blacksmiths in Charleston, a group of Swedes attempted to rekindle this city’s musical life by founding the Charleston Philharmonic Society.

On May 16th, I will host a session here at the Charleston County Public Library consisting of three historical presentations. First, I will present a talk about the cultural climate of antebellum Charleston. This material will lay the ground work for a presentation by Harald Henrysson, curator of the Jussi Bjorling Museum in Stockholm, who will discuss the Swedes who formed the Charleston Philharmonic Society in the 1850s. Finally, the session will conclude with a presentation by Stefan Johansson, head of Dramaturgy at the Swedish Royal Opera in Stockholm, who will discuss Jussi Bjorling’s career at the Royal Opera.

bjorling_flyerThe session will begin at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 16th, in the auditorium of the Charleston County Public Library at 68 Calhoun Street. Admission is free and open to the public, so please feel welcome to attend and learn more about the interesting cultural connections between Charleston, Sweden, and the international music scene.

Posted by: Nic Butler | 20 January 2009

Murray Boulevard Centennial

1949_murray_boulevard_aerialThis year—2009—marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of a “new commercial era” in Charleston’s history. Or at least that’s how Mayor R. Goodwyn Rhett described it in his annual report for 1909. Among the major achievements of that year, Rhett spoke proudly of the commencement of “the Boulevard.” “For more than half a century,” he noted, “ it has been the dream of our people to extend the Battery westward. The dream, in fuller measure than ever pictured, is now becoming a reality.” Between 1909 and 1922, the city spent tens of thousands of taxpayer’s dollars on a massive project that included three main features: a seawall along more that 5,000 feet of Charleston’s Ashley River waterfront, 191 newly-filled residential lots, and a scenic waterfront avenue now known as Murray Boulevard. Residents of this city and tourists alike now take for granted the beautiful views afforded by Rhett’s “Boulevard Project,” but few remember the years of struggle required to bring it to fruition.

As early as 1735 the South Carolina General Assembly reserved the Ashley River marshland between modern Council Street and Lockwood Boulevard “in trust for the Inhabitants of “Charles Town.” In 1857 Charleston’s City Council began purchasing land west of White Point Garden to facilitate the westward expansion of the park and South Bay Street, but the economic reversals caused by the Civil War forced the city to sell the vacant property. Starting again in 1889 the city’s leading businessmen began raising public interest and private capital to create a magnificent “Ashley River Boulevard” from White Point to Hampton Park. The first phase of this grand plan commenced one hundred years ago, in 1909, but economic setbacks and the Great War in Europe drained the city’s capacity to complete the full scope of the project. The present Murray Boulevard and associated neighborhood took thirteen years to complete, and extends nearly a mile in length from East Battery to the west end of Tradd Street. It is indeed an impressive accomplishment, even though it represents just the first phase of a more ambitious but long-forgotten project.

 Want to learn more about the Murray Boulevard project? You’re invited to join me at the Charleston County Public Library for a free centennial commemoration on Wednesday, January 28th, at 6:30 p.m. I hope to see you there!

murray_boulevard_flyerWednesday, 28 January 2009
6:30 p.m.
Charleston County Public Library Auditorium
68 Calhoun Street

For further information, please contact Dr. Nic Butler at (843) 805-6968 or butlern@ccpl.org.

Posted by: Nic Butler | 16 December 2008

Fall Interns Complete Transcription Projects

This fall the Charleston Archive received some outstanding assistance in creating two new research tools. Between mid-August and mid-December 2008, interns Megan Williams and Kalen McNabb, both students in the Historic Preservation and Community Planning program at the College of Charleston, spent a combined total of nearly 300 hours transcribing building-related data from two little-known historic sources.

Megan Williams

Megan Williams

First, they combed through the proceedings of Charleston’s City Council from 1838 through 1862 (which survive only in contemporary newspapers) and transcribed nearly 1,500 references to the activities of the city’s Committee on Wooden Buildings, which was created after the fire of 27 April 1838 that burned a major part of Charleston. The city wanted to outlaw the construction of all wooden buildings after that “dreadful conflagration,” but, under pressure from the public, decided instead to permit the erection of wooden structures under very specific regulations. Homeowners were obliged to get their wooden projects approved by the Committee on Wooden Building, and thus the extant council proceedings contain a wealth of names, addresses, and building descriptions that could prove very useful for people in the historic preservation community today.

Kalen McNabb

Kalen McNabb

Second, Megan and Kalen transcribed 302 of the earliest known building permits issued by the city of Charleston, which date from January 1882 through April 1883. These permits, which were issued in accordance with an ordinance ratified in late 1881, contain the names, addresses, and brief descriptions of residential building projects. Most of the permits seem to have been issued for work located in poorer, less developed areas of the city at that time, and include such work as moving older buildings, repairing and expanding existing structures, and building new on empty lots. Many of these buildings may still stand today, and further research using these permits will hopefully shed more light on the development of Charleston’s urban landscape of the early 1880s.

The Charleston Archive owes a big thanks to Megan and Kalen. Their prolific accomplishments will soon be available to the public in both an electronic and a paper format. Over the next several weeks I will finish proofreading the transcriptions and writing introductory essays for each of the two projects, and the finished products will be available as self-published books in early 2009. Stay tuned for futher details!

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