Hampton Park Terrace - History

History

The land upon which the neighborhood is built was rural land until approximately 1900. At about that time, a few streets began being laid out in the northern end of the city. A few small houses were constructed at that time, but most of the land remained undeveloped. In 1912, three large sections of the neighborhood were platted. Those sections roughly correspond to the northwest quadrant, the southwest quadrant, and the southeast quadrant. They were developed by, respectively, the Charleston Building & Investment Co., Hampton Park Terrace Inc., and the Allan family. The final quadrant to the northeast was sporadically developed through the 1930s by the Navy Yard Building & Investment Co.

The neighborhood was, at the time, on the very edge of developed Charleston. At first, skeptics claimed that the development would fail, but within a month of the start of selling lots, more than 100 of the 251 original lots had been sold. The development was amid truck farming sites, but it benefitted from its location near the Ashley River and Hampton Park. A newspaper account at the time predicted that its success would start a move to suburban living in Charleston instead of in the lower peninsula because of these advantages: "No more desirable location for a home could be imagined-close to the river, away from the noise and bustle of the city, on the Rutledge avenue car line and close to the King street car line, bordering Hampton Park, beautiful now and to be doubly beautiful when plans now being worked out are completed, within sight of the Ashley River with its fresh salt breezes, and the whole area high and dry, sixteen feet above low water mark, within four blocks of the Mitchell School, the biggest and best of the schools of the city system."

The residents of Hampton Park Terrace celebrated the neighborhood's 100th anniversary in March 2012. The event included a performance by the Citadel's band and the unveiling of a state historical marker.