Nostalgia vs. Progress

Perhaps the best way to protect the future of West Ashley’s history is for a small piece of its past to be torn down by a front end loader.
On Monday, Oct. 7 the county Board of Zoning Appeals voted unanimously to allow the demolition of a former Charleston County Wholesale Vegetable Market on Wappoo Road near Savannah Highway.
Its owners, Jack and Andrea Limehouse, now wait patiently for the county paperwork to be completed, again, so they can receive final word and then proceed with the demolition.
In August, Charlie Smith, a West Ashley resident and a member of the Charleston County Planning Commission, was driving by and saw the front end of the large shed being torn down by men and machines.
Smith managed to stop the demolition of the DuPont Crossing Vegetable Market with frantic calls to county zoning offices, which soon put a temporary kibosh on the demolition.
Historic Charleston Foundation threw itself into the fray, attempting to speed the process of divining whether the structure could be eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, removing it from harm’s way.
But the board’s vote was clear, as was the preliminary finding the foundation received into the shed’s lack of historic merit. The shed, the center of this part of town’s truck farming community for nearly 75 years, was not deemed historic enough to save.
The Limehouses have rejected an initial land-swap offer with the City of Charleston that would have preserved the older part of the shed and given them deeper, and potentially more lucrative lots facing Savannah Highway.
Where some may complain that West Ashley has lost of piece of its past; and others may complain that the Limehouses’ private property rights were impinged, perhaps there was a silver lining in all this.
The shed is far from the first piece of West Ashley’s past to feel the pressure  of the future. Years ago, Smith led the charge to protect the Cavallaro nightclub closer to town on the same side of the highway.
Despite a confirmed history and key architectural points, it had not been placed on any protected lists. Located within city limits, its historic worthiness now protects it, as it lives a second life as an auto dealership showroom. Still, local officials admit, it still to this day hasn’t been placed on any protected list.
Winslow Hastie, chief preservation officer at Historic Charleston said the field of preservation has to leave behind its past, wherein the reactive rush to save a historic spot only comes once a developer is threatening a building.
Downtown, on the peninsula, where history clings to bricks and homes like ivy, there have been similar preservation “failures.” Only when Urban Outfitters announced its attention to takeover the Garden Theatre, a forgotten and leaky facility on King Street, did it suddenly become the focus of preservationists.
While Hastie admits to never having heard of the shed before Smith raised his hue and cry, he said preservation efforts have to become more proactive. Like, for instance, updating county’s survey of historic places, which hasn’t been revisited since 1992.
Since August, Andrea Limehouse has had an opportunity to hear how dear her family business’ former location has been to so many people. And, to an extent, she understands.
“But we’re much more sentimental toward it than any other group,” she said.
It was hers and her husband’s shed. It was a tough decision. There were a lot of bad things going on at the site at night, causing stress on nearby merchants.
And, sentimentality aside, it wasn’t historic. And it was becoming a real liability that was already costing them $21,000 a year in insurance and taxes, she said.
And there’s the Clemson agriculture station right down the street, providing a fine link to West Ashley’s farming past, in her eyes.
There may still be a second life for the shed, if the Limehouses and the city can come together on an agreed upon plan. Christopher Morgan, director of the city’s planning office, said that there’s a chance that Green Belt money can be found to create a public farmer’s market on the site, replete with sustainable growing boxes.
But first, it looks like hurt feelings have to fade, that West Ashley may have to lose some of its history to protect it.