Read it in the Personals

Researching and writing this West Ashley Flashback column has helped uncover a wealth of stories of the early 20th century history of St. Andrew’s Parish. At the end of each of these West Ashley Flashback columns is published the e-mail address for readers to hopefully share more stories, photos, or their experiences living in St. Andrew’s Parish during this time period.
One thing I have learned is that many of the readers are unaware of the fact that two books came before the column. Byrnes Downs and West Ashley were published as part of  Arcadia Publishing’s Image of America Series. There’s no official archive of photographs from St. Andrew’s Parish from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. Only through the generosity of the many individuals who love the Parish, documented their life and shared the photographs and stories can St. Andrew’s Parish West Ashley’s history come to life again for all to experience.
“Flashback” is usually centered around a subject matter that came out of the research for these books. Some stories are long and involved and some give us just a small awareness from the period, but all of them are interesting and add to the richness of the historical fabric. Please keep the emails coming! I’m now working on a story-based book for West Ashley.
Sometimes there’s only a picture and a few lines about the picture, but following the theme that a picture is worth a thousand words is a photograph that was shared with me early in my research of Byrnes Downs. Donald Charpia’s great aunt, Lurena Hiers lived in Byrnes Downs on Yeadon Avenue in 1963.
The photograph shows her in a beautiful dress standing elegantly by her automobile in the driveway of her Byrnes Downs home. This photograph came to represent to me the pride of the people who moved to the “suburbia” of West Ashley to build their homes, churches, school, businesses, and this community that we cherish.
Donald had the picture, but little other information. Lucky for me during her time living in Byrnes Downs, there was a local paper called the West Ashley Journal.  “Personals” was a very popular column in newspapers during that time and the column detailed the personal things that people were doing. (Think Facebook precursor.)
One “Personal” column detailed: “A birthday party for 5-year-old Rena Hiers was given last week at her home in Byrnes Downs. The party was given by Mr. and Mrs. Herbert J. Hiers and 49 children attended.” If you are familiar with the square footage of Byrnes Downs homes, 49 children probably created quite a memory from that day.
Stories or photographs of St. Andrew’s Parish from 1880 to 1960? Contact Donna at westashleybook@gmail.com