Charles Towne Landing restores history

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site always told the story of the state's past. The revamped park unveiled Aug. 17 is imbued with a newfound respect for that history.

No longer does a paved tram road spread through the Gullah cemetery, an interpretive center cover the Native American ceremonial grounds or a geodesic dome sprout like an out-of-place mushroom.

"We decided to step back and let the story tell itself," said Chad Prosser, director of the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. "To do that we had to remove some of the static."

A new, inviting visitors center packed with high-tech displays replaces the old interpretive center, pavilion, geodesic dome and gift shop that used to create a gantlet for people heading from the parking lot to the original settlement site.

The site on Albemarle Point always had a compelling past. Settlers sailing from Barbados in 1670 selected the point for the first permanent European settlement in the Carolinas. It's across the Ashley River from current downtown Charleston.

Earlier, Native Americans had used the area as a ceremonial site. After the main settlement shifted to the deeper water port across the river in the late 1600s, the original settlement site converted to a plantation.

The 664-acre site was turned into a history park as part of the state's tricentennial celebration in 1970. The buildings constructed back then were designed to be temporary, but they stood for 35 years. What had been a state-of-the-art facility deteriorated badly, especially after sustaining damage from Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Local leaders begged the state legislature for a major infusion of money to remake the park, and they got about $19 million over the past few years.

"This is not just a state park," said Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston. "This is the birthplace of the state."

The park closed to the public late last year to make way for bulldozers. About $8 million has been spent on the ongoing project, which aims to remake an attraction put together quickly 36 years ago.

In the haste to open an interpretive center and pavilion in 1970, pleas not to build on the former Native American ceremonial site were ignored, said Stanley South, who conducted a survey of the site in the late 1960s.

Later, the builders of the tram road mistakenly thought broken glass and pottery indicated an unimportant dump site. On the contrary, the debris was part of the Gullah culture's burial ritual.

State officials long have regretted those early mistakes, said Phil Gaines, director of state parks. In the park renovation, they've done what they could to rectify them. Wooden posts mark the corners of the former Native American site, with a sign explaining what South's team found in the area. The tram path has been moved, and signs mark the graveyard, which has no above-ground markers.

"This time they did it right,"McConnell said. "They took the time. They did the research."

In the new park, archaeologists get almost as much credit as the original settlers. Nearly every exhibit in the visitors center and every sign on the history trail feature something uncovered in recent digs: a table knife found near post holes that probably mark an early home; pottery shards from the Native American site; the dark line of soil where a palisades fence stood.

Park rangers dressed in period costumes on opening day spoke with visitors about life during colonial times. The park service can't afford to do that every day, but Gaines hopes to provide that kind of special touch as often as possible. That's only fitting for one of the few protected colonial settlement sites in North America, along with Jamestown in Virginia and St. Mary's City in Maryland.

"It's about time they got around to doing something like this," said Jeff Jackson, 47, who has been visiting the park since his childhood and was impressed with the changes.

"It had fallen into disrepair. It's a great site and has so much potential. They're moving in the right direction."