Piggly Wiggly was originally at Dupont Crossing before it moved to Skylark Drive
DuPont Crossing was a hub for community activity in St. Andrew’s Parish. It wasn’t a road but more of a conceptual area and very easy to identify. The Seaboard Air Line tracks crossed Savannah Highway and Wappoo Road at DuPont Crossing. This was the location of the Charleston County Market where the train stopped to load vegetables. Photographs dating in the early 1940s illustrate businesses on three of the four corners of Savannah Highway and Wappoo Road. Albert P. Whaley had a service station on one corner and later moved his establishment across Savannah highway.
A service station still functions at this corner. Luther and Grace Bootle ran a service station, grocery, and lunchroom on the corner in front of the Charleston County Market. St. Andrew’s Parish High School was just down the street on Wappoo Road. Seniors with privileges would walk to the corners for sodas and snacks. Corbett’s Packaging was a little further south on Savannah Highway. One might speculate that the activity of truck farmers bringing produce to the Market for loading would account for three service stations, two grocery stores and a place to eat a mid-day meal at this intersection.
So, it is no surprise that when Caleb Davis and his wife Levinia wanted to invest in a Piggly Wiggly they scouted this area. Davis had been running a grocery store for the Middletons a little further south at the corner of Stinson Rd. In 1947, Piggly Wiggly #8 was born on Savannah Highway just north of Wappoo Road. In a few years, they sold the store to an uncle who later sold to Billy Barrineau. And it was Billy Barrineau who expanded this grocery operation in 1957 to an 11,400 square foot modern supermarket at a new location on Savannah Highway just south of Wappoo Road in order to service the greater West Ashley area.
Barrineau’s son, Billy Barrineau Jr., is a treasure-trove of stories from this time period. But like many St. Andrew’s Parish stories, the Barrineau story begins elsewhere. Barrineau, one of 15 children, was raised on a farm near Lake City, SC. He took his first opportunity to find work elsewhere and worked as a traveling salesman. This is how he met his wife, Lilliamae Lee.
Lilliamae ran a tea room near Hemingway, S.C. that was frequented by traveling salesmen. They married and moved to Charleston for new opportunities living originally on Ashley Avenue near Porter Military academy. Barrineau served for a brief minute as a highway patrolman for the state of South Carolina before returning to the life of a salesman for Ballard Flour, introducing him into the word of grocery mercantile.
Recognizing that Dupont Crossing was this hub of activity, he moved his family to a home on Savannah Highway and soon was engaged in the grocery store business. He is listed as managing the first Dupont Piggly Wiggly #8 in a 1948 ad for the store. By the mid 1950s, St. Andrew’s Parish was rapidly growing so the decision was made to build a larger store.
The new modern supermarket was described in the November 22, 1957 edition of “The Evening Post” as “one of the largest in the Charleston area” having a parking area that is more than double the store’s foot print; a large frozen food section; a nursery area to “amuse small children while mothers shop”; a lounge for women to rest; music piped through the store; and a carport for loading groceries in case of inclement weather. Even the deli became locally well-known as the go to place for lunch, dinner and take-out. Barrineau serviced the West Ashley grocery needs from Piggly Wiggly #8 until the time the store was moved to Skylark Drive and the former store building was sold to the Sofa Super Store. He then entered the world of retirement.
Barrineau Jr. grew up at the crossroads of Dupont as his father ran the store. He gives a delightful first-hand account of what it was like during this time. He chuckles as he recalls fond memories of the woman who was his nanny, Wilhemina Smalls; a brief period attending Blessed Sacrament preschool where his mother worked for Father McCarthy; the childhood adventures from the time at Stono Park Elementary School and St. Andrew’s Parish High School; moving to the family home on Wappoo Road; walking the Seaboard Airline railroad tracks with his friend, Bill Seignious; working for his father at the Piggly Wiggly; his father’s generous nature with customers; and the family’s close involvement with the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.
Today, many people quickly pass through this very busy intersection. But if you sit for a minute with Billy Barrineau Jr. the view becomes quite different.
Dupont Crossing memories? Contact Donna at westashleybook@gmail.com.
