John Laurens graduated from the Citadel in 1910. During World War I Laurens was stationed with the Charleston Light Dragoons in El Paso, Texas and later in France. In the interview, Laurens enumerates his siblings and discusses various occurrences in his life and in Charleston including family vacations on the Southern Railroad, a bath house that was once located at the end of Tradd Street, the Charleston Exposition of 1901, a tornado that took off the steeple of St. Philips Church and a fire at the Anderson Lumber Company once located on Broad Street. Audio with transcript.
Mrs. Sparkman talks about several different ghost stories that are told about her house at 15 Legare Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Audio with transcript.
Interview with Marcus McDonald, who is the activist leader of Charleston Black Lives Matter and a local substitute teacher. He shares his experience moving from Columbia to Charleston for college as a young, black male. He learned the power words and communication hold at a young age, as both of his parents were deaf and he would often have to speak up for them. Mr. McDonald gives insight on how racial tensions shaped his education at the College of Charleston and how these circumstances led to his passion for advocacy and equity. He details the roadblocks to equity, as well as the ways he has used his personal power to help community members surmount them. In a seminal period of Charleston's history, Mr. McDonald hopes to see the various centers of the Eastside prosper, and cautions the rapid gentrification of the area.
The story of Rosamond Lawson's family connection with Sullivan's Island is the story of houses. Her great-great grandfather, German immigrant Charles Otto Witte, bought the first house at Station 18 in the late 1860's. That house ultimately burned, but a second house at Station 11, built in 1868, was bought in 1910 and remained in the family until 2018. Having moved from Charleston to Virginia when she was six, many of Rosamond's early memories are of summer visits. However, in 1994 she moved back to this area and spent many more years in the house with her own growing family. Summertime memories in the early years included crabbing, fishing, playing kickball, and entertaining Charleston friends. She learned to drive on the dirt road that ran along the back of the island. Rosamond recalls all the front beach homes being summer residences. Few people lived on Sullivan's Island year round, and those were not on front beach. Most houses, including her own, had neither heating nor air conditioning. On the rare visit to the island in the winter, the place was nearly deserted. There was a vegetable man who would come over every few days to deliver fresh produce. Rosamond recounts the few businesses that existed in those days. Playing hide and seek in the old batteries and Fort Moultrie before it became a National Park are all fond memories. Rosamond describes the typical summer thunderstorm and experiencing that in the old house. She also shows the damage done by Hurricane Hugo. Rosamond is also part of the Waring family. That includes Judge Waties Waring whose controversial decision became part of the famous Brown vs. Board of Education case leading to his ostracization and eventual move from Charleston to New York. Finally, Rosamond discusses her favorite memories as well as all the changes she has seen in the area over the past twenty-five years.
Marcus Overton is an actor, director, and coach whose career has encompassed theatre, opera, radio and television, and arts administration. He also conducts an award-winning show for South Carolina Public Radio, Spoleto Today. Overton was executive director and producing director of Spoleto Festival U.S.A. during the turbulent years of 1992-1994. Overton discusses the rift between ousted executive director Nigel Redden and Gian Carlo Menotti, Menotti's own eventual departure from Spoleto U.S.A., and the personnel changes and budget deficits that threatened the survival of the festival. Audio with transcript.
Leslee Newcomb has been a wig and make-up designer for Spoleto since 1978. She discusses the intimacy of wig and make-up design and her interaction with performers and details the changes she's seen in Charleston since her first Spoleto Festival U.S.A. Audio with transcript.
Interview of Evangelyon H. Rainsford, also known as Vangie Rainsford. Ms. Rainsford has lived in Charleston her entire adult life. She recounts her experience purchasing her home on Chapel Street, which she fell in love with immediately. She rehabilitated the house and decorated the interior with antiques. Ms. Rainsford has been an active neighborhood leader and has been the neighborhood president of Mazyck Wraggborough for several decades. She discusses the creation of the Garden District in the neighborhood and the establishment of the triangle park on Chapel and Elizabeth Street, including where the fountain was found. The changing character of Charleston and the neighborhood were also discussed.
Interview with William J. Murtagh (Bill Murtagh), the first Keeper of the National Register and one of the world's leading historic preservationists. In this interview he speaks about how he became the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places; his involvement with Charleston's first preservation plan and the development of what became known as the James Island Connector; his relationship with Frances Edmunds; and his vision for the future of historic preservation. Interviewed by Jonathan Poston at the Missroon House on November 8, 2005.
Interview with Thomas Pinckney Rutledge Rivers, long time Charleston resident living on the lower peninsula in the South of Broad neighborhood. Rivers recalls they joy of growing up South of Broad at 28 Gibbes St and 7 Orange Street and the change that took place over the past 80 years. His parents were both from established, long time Charleston families. Rivers grew up hunting in McClellanville and was an avid hunter his whole life. He went away to boarding school, attended Davidson College, went to medical school, joined the army, then came back to Charleston and started practicing as an OBGYN at Roper Hospital. Rivers has a lot of commentary on what the hospital was like years ago and how it has evolved since the 1960s. A particularly funny story he tells is that he delivered a baby with a dying quail in his back pocket after being called in to the hospital while hunting. He believes he has delivered 7,000 babies in Charleston over his lifetime. Rivers has fond memories of the Charleston he knew as a boy and fears what has become of the city today with new development and an influx of tourists and new residents. Interviewed by Anne Blessing in Mrs. Blessing's home on August 9, 2017. Recorded as part of HCF's "Changing Neighborhoods" series, made possible by a grant from the SC Humanities Commission.
Interview by Katherine Pemberton with Martha Sass, a woman who was raised in the East Side of Charleston. When she was a child, the family moved to Charleston from Cross, SC after the family house burned down there. They first lived on Line Street, then moved to the projects. While living on Line Street, she started attending Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church where she remains very active and involved. Mrs. Sass discusses living in the East Side; her sometimes difficult family life and her social life; going to school (Sanders Clyde, then C.A. Brown) and college (South Carolina State University); various grocery and department stores in the neighborhood and downtown; recreational activities including ice skating at County Hall, going to The Battery, and going to Folly and Mosquito Beach; moving to New York after high school then moving back to Charleston; meeting her husband; her involvement with the Church; Hurricane Hugo; etc. She reminisces about Cross, SC, where she visited throughout her early childhood. She also discusses the changes she has seen in the neighborhood both positive and negative, and her concerns about the future of the East Side. While she feels that she didn't experience racism directly, she was aware of racism and other racial divides in Charleston, and shares a story about her brother's marriage to a Vietnamese woman. Grants from both the South Carolina Humanities Commission and the Employees Community Fund of Boeing allowed HCF to proceed with this initiative and several oral history interviews have been conducted that focus on specific neighborhoods and the changes these residents have experienced over time.
![Interview with Thomas Pinckney Rutledge Rivers [Tommy Rivers]](https://rspace.library.cofc.edu/filestore/9/9/7/0/2/2_95b79094de0524c/220799_alt_32898_44746902137e16d.jpg)
