Ashley River Historic District Passes First Hurdle

The proposed expansion to the Ashley River Historic District has passed its first hurdle on its way to listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The State Review Board gave the expanded district unanimous approval on March 26 at its quarterly meeting at the SC Department of Archives and History in Columbia.

Historic Charleston Foundation began pursuing an expanded historic district designation for the Ashley river region several years ago. In 2007, the foundation received a generous grant from the Donnelley family that enabled HCF to hire a talented group of consultants to move forward with this large research and survey effort.

A district of approximately 7,000 acres was first designated as a National Register District in 2004. This area encompassed historic and cultural properties between Ashley River Road and the Ashley River itself and included the well known plantation properties of Drayton Hall, Magnolia Plantation and Middleton Place. The expanded district now encompasses more than 23,000 acres. Much of the increase is associated with the rice culture that dominated the landscape, economy, and society of the Lowcountry in the 18th and early 19th centuries and with the phosphate mining that helped the region recover from the agricultural and economic upheaval of the Civil War and Reconstruction era.

1994 district in orange; 2010 expansion area in yellow

In order to fully tell these stories, large tracts to the south and west of the Ashley River Road were surveyed using a pioneering combination of computer mapping with overlays of historic maps and targeted field survey. Additionally, new sites such as the Lord Ashley archaeology site have been investigated and incorporated into the expanded district. The brickwork found at Lord Ashley's plantation site (1675-1685) at the upper reaches of the Ashley River seems to be the oldest brickwork yet found in South Carolina and the site is the only one directly associated with one of the original Lords Proprietors of Carolina.

The nomination for the Ashley River District will be sent to Washington, DC, in a few weeks for review by the National Park Service and listing in the National Register of Historic Places is expected sometime this summer.

Information courtesy of the Historic Charleston Foundation