"Summerville SC" a Summerville Travel Page by grandmaR

Display in the Trade Winds Restaurant entrance.

Summerville – known as "The Flower Town in the Pines" – is located in Dorchester County north of Charleston. .

Our son, DIL and two grandchildren live there, so we visit fairly often.

Our most recent visit was by boat to Patriot's Point in November 2003. Other visits, in inverse order..

We drove down from Leonardtown for Thanksgiving 2002

We visited by boat and rental car on our way north in the Spring of 2002, and stayed at the Charleston Maritime Center.

In the fall of 2001, we came south by boat and stayed at Isle of Palms and rented a car.

In the spring of 2001, we stayed at Buzzard's Roost on our boat on our way north.

On our first trip south by boat in 2000, we stayed at Patriot's Point for Thanksgiving week.

Prior to that we drove down from Leonardtown several times in our car.

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Dirt track for bike racing

History: "Situated on a pine-forested ridge, it was first inhabited in the late 1700's as Charlestonians and other inhabitants of the SC Lowcountry sought respite from the summer heat, mosquitos and disease..[in]higher elevation to live temporarily or "maroon," in the tiny forest colony soon dubbed Summerville. ..

"Modernization came to town with the arrival of the railroad in the early 1800's and led the village to incorporation. Trees were being cut in large numbers for laying rails and the clearing of lots to relocate the commercial center near the tracks. To protect Summerville's biggest asset, the village became an official town in 1847, passing a first law prohibiting the cutting of certain-sized trees without permission, and fining offenders a then hefty $25. That ordinance, one of the oldest of its kind in the United States, is still on the books.

"...While still recovering from the War Between the States, Summerville suffered extensive destruction during the 1886 earthquake, followed by a downtown fire which wiped out most of the buildings surrounding the town square...

".. The International Congress of Physicians declared Summerville as one of the two best places in the world for the treatment and recovery of lung disorders. .. founded in the purported healing aspects of.. [pine] tree's turpentine scent. ..

"Summerville's .. motto [is], "The Flower Town in the Pines." ..[in the] early spring ..[there are] millions of spring blossoms, particularly azaleas, in private and public gardens, including the mid-town Azalea Park. ..The motto on the town's official seal is "Sacra Pinus Esto- The Pine is Sacred".

"The town's population hovered around 3,000 for nearly a century, not reaching 6,000 until the late 1970's. Then, as a bedroom community for the larger urban centers in the area, resulted in a doubling of the population in the 1980's. . . The 2000 Census declared that the Town of Summerville's population was 27,752."