Walking the 'Ville: Historic Downtown--A New Addition to Summerville's Tour Options

Cherished landmarks, both past and present, are scattered throughout Summerville's celebrated downtown area, each with a fascinating story to tell. Unfortunately, a story is all that remains for some. They have "crumbled to the ground and become dust in the wind. Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky. It slips away. And all your money won't another minute buy," so says a famous song. Residents and visitors desiring to know the stories associated with these points of interest can access various interactive tours made available by the town to assist them in their quest.

Beginning in November of 2021, a group of Summerville representatives and residents came together to form a new tour team interested in expanding the town's tour options. The group brainstormed lots of potential tours. Many of them remain possibilities for the future. However, for the present, they decided to focus on Hutchinson Square and surrounding streets to bring more walking traffic to local businesses and increase interest in the museum.

In celebration of Summerville's 175th Anniversary, the Tour Team launched its new walking tour on June 1st called Walking the 'Ville: Historic Downtown. The starting point is the Summerville Dorchester Museum located at 100 E. Doty Street. The tour is very navigable with an interactive and downloadable map posted on the Visit Summerville site. Totaling thirteen stops, QR code signs will be located at each point of interest for you to scan with your cell phones or tablets. Pictures of the original landmarks are provided along with a detailed history and a complete audio summary. Video below is an example of audio summary you can download as you view the landmark in person.

The thirteen stops are Summerville Dorchester Museum, the Icehouse, the Bittershon Inn, Coburn Hutchinson House, James F. Dean Theater, Town Hall, Guerin's Pharmacy, Saul Alexander's Clothing Store, the Railroad Depot, the Summerville Arch, Church of the Epiphany-Kitty Springs, the Timrod Library, and Worlds Largest Iced Sweet Tea Jar called Mason. If you are superstitious, we will call it ten stops plus three. The final three are considered bonus stops.

The Town Tour Team included Tina Zimmerman; Visitors Center, Rita Berry; Chamber, Dr. Ed West, Ken Battle, Danny Hughes and Pam Giesick; Summerville Museum, Ellen Priest; former Summerville Journal Scene Publisher, Perrin Cothran Conrad; local author and tourism professional, Steve Doniger; DREAM Executive, George McDaniel; Drayton Hall Director Emeritus, Deb Campeau, and other advisors.

So, put on your walking shoes and grab your cell phones. Go to the Visit Summerville site and download the map. Visit each of the points of interest and learn about the landmarks place and impact on Summerville's history. As you stroll from location to location, take a break for a refreshing drink of whatever suits your fancy at one of the numerous cafes, drinking holes or food establishments. Relax in the square and immerse yourself in its absorbing atmosphere and soak in the sounds of a town on the move. There is history to be learned and history in the making.

Summerville's "Crime Of The Century" Needs Solving--Get Your Sherlock Holmes On And Join The DREAM Team Downtown March 20th

The beloved Mayor of Summerville, Bill Collins, has been ruthlessly liquidated. Preliminary reading of the sweet tea leaves are pointing accusatively towards local business owners as likely suspects.

The Summerville DREAM Team has been assigned the difficult task of investigating the case and are imploringly requesting the assistance of all residents and visitors to solve the mysteriously shocking and perplexing incident. "Who did it", "what did they do it with", and "where did they do it" are the three parts of the case needing a resolution.

March 20th, Third Thursday, Summerville will be transformed into a game board patterned after the murder-mystery game sold by Parker Brothers called Clue--invented by Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Pratt of Bournemouth, England and originally published by Waddingtons in Leeds, England in 1949 called Cluedo. No description of the games components is presumably necessary--Clue has a wide distribution and is considered one of America's favorite classic board games.

As a young child I, like many of my contemporaries, spent countless hours playing this addictive game. As a result, I became quite skillful at going from room to room collecting clues, employing cutthroat strategies such as misdirection, and ultimately arriving at the correct assumptions--with the assistance of a high role of the dice, which is key to quickly moving around the board in collecting the necessary clues. In the Summerville version, how quickly you move from clue to clue will be totally dependent on your fleetness of foot or as Sherlock Holmes would say, "The game's a-foot."

The fun begins at 5:00 pm. Clues will be spread throughout the various stores and restaurants in the downtown district of Summerville. You will have just three hours to collect and solve the case. Your due diligence will pay off--prizes will be handed out.

For background music, the Vistas will be performing on Hutchinson Square and at the end of the Square near the railroad tracks the 'Wounded Warriors' will be visiting to take pictures with you and share their stories. Expect to see 25-40 bicycles.

Also, make it a point to stop by the Summerville Dorchester Museum for "Tales of Summerville" history talks presented by Dr. Ed West.

Three more birds will be released as part of the ongoing B.I.R.D.S. Project and maps for the Summerville ROCKS will be distributed.

So, join the fun. Get your Sherlock Holmes on and solve the murder-mystery. Your favorite, local business just might be implicated in perpetrating Summerville's crime of the century in Lookin' Local.

Other notable events to consider in March are the Summerville Trolley Tours: March 14, 10:30 am, Historic City Tour with tour of Timrod Library and 1:00 pm, Historic City Tour with Tea at the Museum. March 21, 10:30 am, Good Eat on the Sweet Tea Trail Tour with storyteller Tim Lowry and 1:00 pm, Historic City Tour with Tea at the Museum. Visit lowcountrylooptrolley to reserve your spot on the trolley.

An Important Piece Of Charleston History Rolled Into Summerville Monday-The Replica Of The Historic "Best Friend"

The purchase of my first train set is the typical boy's tale revolving around the saving of tips from paper delivery. After accumulating the necessary funds, I purchased it from a discount store, no longer in existence. It was an HO scale train set with two blue-gray diesel locomotives. As time passed-by, I expanded the tracks, added more cars and more accessories. Spent countless hours at my cousin's house setting up the trains and running them. Classic boyhood fun and all part of the love affair with trains.

The real-life, full-scale versions have fascinated people since the steam locomotive's first appearance in the late 1700's and continue to fascinate the masses today, especially the massive iron horses of the 1800's. There is something soothing about the sound of the clickety-clack of the steel wheels on the steel tracks that brings to mind simpler times and massages our curiosity on how our predecessors experienced life. Summerville's place in that history is well documented as evidenced by Monday's festivities.

Our "Best Friend" rolled into town and Summerville's residents came out in large numbers to greet and celebrate the historic arrival. It was the final stop of a long journey that began six years ago. After leaving Summerville, "Best Friend" will complete the journey in downtown Charleston where permanent residence have been arranged, a glass enclosure on John Street. It is the famous steam locomotive owned by the City of Charleston.

This "Best Friend" was built in the late 1920's for the centennial of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company. It is a replica of the original "Best Friend", which made its first run on December 25, 1830 for the Southern Railway System. Summerville was the first stop out of Charleston on the railway.

The replica was displayed in front of the Summerville-Dorchester Museum on E Doty Ave next to the tracks not far from where the train stations once stood. Patrick Barber, owner of Superior Transportation and the flatbeds used to transport the brightly painted replica, beamed with pride.

We chatted and I asked questions. I knew the original "Best Friend" was only in service a short time due to an accident, but Patrick detailed the unfortunate event. "The locomotive was destroyed by a boiler explosion later attributed to the ignorance of the engineer who seeking to take a nap under a tree disabled the safety valve with his bandanna to prevent it from making its usual loud hissing noise," Patrick explained.

Chris Ohm, director of the Summerville Dorchester Museum, orchestrated the event and fielded questions from the onlookers. Chris and I both agreed building a replica of Summerville's first train station would be a huge tourist draw for Summerville. "The idea of building the train station has been proposed. Maybe, sometime in the future it will be a realistic possibility." The first train station in the 1800's was a classic Victorian Style station decorated with an elaborate gingerbread trim.

E Doty Ave was lined with vendors - peanuts, popcorn and a stand with lemonade, cider and of course, sweet tea. Steel drum music filled the air. Ken Burger, author of a trilogy of South Carolina stories and "Baptized in Sweet Tea", sported a face painting of the historic locomotive in celebration of the event.

The gathered crowd, boiling over with anticipation, eagerly awaited the storied arrival and when it finally pulled in, expectations were more than satisfied. It was monumental. Cameras and cell phones clicked in concert. Train enthusiasts basked in the nostalgia. The older residents recalled it. The adults amazed at it. The kids loved it. I wondered how the engineer dealt with the weather elements and what it would have been like to ride in the open-air coaches.

During the festivities, a freight train on its way to Charleston cruised past blasting its powerful horns repeatedly in respectful recognition of its forerunner as the engineer waved to the crowd. A reminder the Southern Railway System extending out of Charleston with Summerville its one-time first stop, the first railway to carry U.S. mail, is still actively hauling freight today. Although not passengers, there is always the dream. It was Summerville's day to blow its whistle and bath in the glory.