The building on this lot was constructed about 1925 as a “water works,” used to supply water for the town. In the side yard was a large water tower which is now gone.  Remaining are the heavy concrete bases for support stanchions and the cistern for storing water. The water works operation was moved before 1940. The facility then became the town jail in the 1970s.  The Summerville-Dorchester Museum was given a lease for the building by the town in the 1992. It is operated by volunteers. The museum courtyard is accessible to visitors even outside of museum hours.

The Summerville Ice and Cold Storage Company was established at the Ice House in 1903, replacing sea shipments of ice cut from frozen northern water sources. The ice company became the main supplier of ice for the homes and inns of Summerville after 1900. The company merged with the town’s power and light company in 1909.

Two side-by-side residences comprise the historic Bittersohn Inn at 103 and 107 S. Magnolia St. They are of similar construction with large, two-story piazzas and star motifs at the porch columns. The houses date from about 1880 and the star motif is found on other porches of the same period in the town. It is likely that the star is a distinctive mark of the builder.

The Charleston single style house is a residence fairly unique to Charleston which has several distinguishing characteristics. It was developed as a practical response to conditions of the city which included a need for positioning to best receive the sea breeze and to maintain privacy on relatively crowded city streets. In the 1850s, recurring late-summer epidemics of yellow fever in Charleston inspired the actual inhabitation of today’s “downtown” Summerville. Some of the refugees from yellow fever built, as they had in the city, the distinctive “Charleston single house ."

The Dean Theater is a brick theater which is on the site of an earlier entertainment center known as “The Arcade Theatre.” The Arcade was Summerville’s first movie theater built around 1925 when motion pictures were viewed without sound tracks. At that time, live piano and violin music in the theater added to the drama of the moment. Sydney Legendre, an entrepreneur from New Orleans, purchased and renovated the theater in 1935. The theater closed for a while, but reopened as the James F. Dean Theater for the Flowertown Players.

In 1892, a large Town Hall was erected on the present site at Hutchinson Square. It stood three stories high with a bell tower connected alongside. The architecture of the modern Town Hall, erected in 1969 after the storm-damaged previous town hall was demolished, recalls the structure which stood on Hutchinson Square at the same site for almost a century. The bell of the tower was originally installed at Porter Military Academy in Charleston. Rev. Toomer Porter, the founder of the school for boys and a resident of Summerville, arranged for the bell’s transfer. The bell was rung to mark the hours of the day as well as to raise a fire alarm and direct the volunteers to the fire site.

The oldest continuously operating pharmacy in the state, Guerin’s was built during the Civil War as a refuge for Schwettmann’s Pharmacy in Charleston which had been damaged by cannon fire. After the war, Dr. Schwettmann sold to Dr. Henry C. Guerin, a former Confederate officer and graduate of the Medical College of South Carolina. Originally clapboard, the structure now has a brick façade.

Saul Alexander arrived alone in Summerville in 1905 as a Jewish teenager fleeing persecution in his native Ukraine. Over time, he established himself as a tailor and a money lender. His name can still be seen above the entrance to what was his store on Town Square, currently occupied by Cuppa Manna. Upon his death, many were surprised to find that he had become a millionaire. The town still benefits from the Saul Alexander Foundation.

The modern trains of the Norfolk-Southern RR today ride on the original bed of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company of 1832. The first local Depot was along that quaint wooden rail line on W. Doty Ave., between modern S. Main St. and S. Cedar St. It was no more than a shed and was used primarily to supply water. In the Golden Age of the Inns, the Milburn designed Depot offered an impressive setting for the sophisticated, wealthy travelers from “off” who came to this little southern town seeking relief. When passenger service was discontinued in the 1960s, the Summerville Depot was demolished; the Ladson Depot is also now gone.

Summerville Arch Sign

The large arching sign on Hutchinson Square is a reminder of the natural beauty of the town and a statement of appreciation for the pines of Summerville. It recalls moments of our history worth memorializing. When the town was incorporated in 1847, one of the reasons was for the citizens to have the authority to demand that the railroad company cease cutting down the pine trees which were thought to hold health benefits. This inspired the town motto: “Let the pines be sacred.” In 1933, the term “Flowertown in the Pines” was adopted. In 1941, a large wooden arch spanned the North Main Street town entrance with a welcoming message: “Summerville – the Flowertown in the Pines.”  Those leaving town to the north would read on the back side of the sign, the town motto: “Let the pine be sacred.” 

​

Catherine Smith “Kitty” Springs (1828-1895)

Outside the Church of the Epiphany stands a monument to Kitty Springs, who was a successful woman of color despite oppressive culture and laws in the 1870s. 

In 1897 a group of young Summerville women formed a Chautququa Reading Circle; from this modest beginning the Timrod Library developed.  The women donated the books from their reading circle to be the nucleus of a membership library chartered Aptril 23, 1908.  Within seven years their library had a permanent home.  

Mason-The World's Largest Sweet Tea lives in historic Downtown Summerville next to Town Hall.  

Mason stands over 15 feet tall and can hold up to 2,524 gallons of Sweet Tea-The Champange of the South. 

The Town of Summerville made its way into the record book by setting the Guinness World Record for the World's Largest (Sweet) Iced Tea on National Iced Tea day, also known as June 10th. 

M