Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Message from Tom & Donna from Mount Pleasant

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for posting about our new home in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. We live north of town in the county, between Mount Pleasant and Francis Marion National Forest. We’re twenty minutes to Charleston, ten minutes to the beach and five minutes to the undeveloped countryside. Our neighborhood, in transition, (old habits die hard) is within walking distance to the salt marsh and offers shade from old oak trees.

We looked at a few areas around Charleston but when we drove along Highway 17 into Mount Pleasant we were struck by the very apparent strong zoning and planning. Stores and shopping areas are mostly well set back and in many cases not even visible from the main road. There is still space along the side of the road where local weavers sell “Sweetgrass Baskets” from small stands. This tradition dates back to the late 17th century, brought here from Africa by slaves.

Mt. Pleasant recently purchased a combined 245 acre parcel of land with the intent of turning it into the town’s third large park. In the local paper Town administrator Eric DeMoura was quoted as saying, “The town explained that the development of these two tracts of land into single homes, for example, would strain the town services for a long time.” That really hit a strong note with us!

History is all around us; from colonial times, through the Revolution and of course the Civil War. Mount Pleasant and Charleston were the first to advocate seceding from the Union (they’ve tried it three times), and standing on the shore of Battery Park (Take a Virtual Tour) looking out to Fort Sumter is a remarkable site. Even at the beach history is right over your shoulder with old forts and gun emplacements still visible. In fact the library on Sullivan’s Island is housed within a Civil War artillery bunker.

We are enjoying exploring here, but we do miss Lake Worth. We listen to the meetings on the computer and of course read the blogs. We have already had some frost and are looking forward to visiting Florida over the winter. We hope we get to see everybody on Lake Ave. and catch up on all the news from Lake Worth.

Tom and Donna in Mount Pleasant

No comments: