James Woodrow McDonald lived on Cumberland Street in downtown Charleston with this wife Nellie Myers McDonald when they decided they wanted to move to the country.
This was a popular dream for many who lived on the peninsula and St. Andrew’s Parish was the area known as “the country”. Pierpont on the Ashley was one of the subdivisions in St. Andrew’s Parish that had been “surveyed and staked for Pierpont Corporation” in February 1933 by Richard Rhett. In 1940 McDonald purchased Lot 66 in section 1 from the Deer Park Corporation according to the Contract for Sale.
The lot was a generous one and fronted on both Pierpont Avenue and Dogwood Avenue. McDonald subdivided the lot into four parcels and built a home on one of the two lots facing Pierpont Avenue. He subsequently rented this home and built an identical home on one of the lots facing Dogwood. This is the home where they raised their family, according to their daughter Margaret, known as Maggie.
Growing up in the country of St. Andrew’s Parish holds fond memories. Childhood memories from living in this new subdivision of Pierpont are no exception.
All the roads were dirt. Everyone walked to a bus stop and went to school at St. Andrew’s Parish High School or later Albemarle Elementary when it was built. Roosters might even chase you to the bus stop.
All the mailboxes were on Highway 61. Everyone knew each other. And in the case of the McDonald home: “Mother knew everything you did before you did it.”— so it was hard to execute childhood pranks unnoticed. Many strong relationships developed in Pierpont that continue on even into today.
Maggie McDonald would marry a boy she met in the neighborhood, James Frederick Moody, Jr. His family ran Moody’s Grocery on the corner of Pierpont and Highway 61, a store that catered to the local residents. They would build their home on the parcel of land next to her parents on Dogwood Road in 1964, raise their family and continue to add to the stories and memories of living in Pierpont on the Ashley.
People, Places, Stories about the history of St. Andrew’sParish? Contact Donna Jacobs at westashleybook@gmail.com.
