S.C. Encyclopedia | First visited by Robert Sandford in 1666 while he was reconnoitering the southeastern seaboard of North America for Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, Colleton County was one of three original counties organized in the English province of Carolina in 1682. However, Colleton was divided into three parishes by 1730 (St. Bartholomew’s, St. Paul’s, and St. John’s Colleton), which took over most county responsibilities, including oversight of elections.
Staff reports | For the first time in 40 years, Charleston will get a new mayor today when businessman John Tecklenburg takes the oath of office at noon. He’ll be replacing 10-term Mayor Joe Riley, who retires today.
The swearing-in ceremony is set for noon today at City Hall, 80 Broad Street, in Charleston. Nearby roads will be blocked to traffic as hundreds are expected to fill streets to watch the transfer of power. After a reception in Washington Square, Tecklenburg is expected to sign an ethics pledge he made during his campaign, meet with senior city department heads and get to work to build efforts to push completion of Interstate 526.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds is the gift that keeps on giving for Gov. Nikki Haley.
Not only will she receive a major leadership award Jan. 12 from Furman’s Riley Institute for her role in taking down the flag, she’s been tapped to give the national GOP response to President Obama’s final State of the Union address.
Cynics easily spin the speech as little more than an attempt to illustrate that Republicans can be brown and female, not just white and male. Others may take it a step further and say the nationally-televised response is political payback.
By Doug Holmes | The real estate market in Charleston in 2015 was awesome and record-setting. It was the third busiest year ever in sales. We sold 15,486 residential units with a record median sales price of $235,000.
Staff reports | Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will deliver a keynote address 3 p.m. Sunday during the 44th annual Martin Luther King Tri-County Ecumenical Service, which will be at Morris Street Baptist Church, 25 Morris Street, in Charleston. It’s one of several events scheduled through Jan. 19 in South Carolina’s largest annual tribute to King, an event coordinated by the YWCA of Charleston. Also in Good News: Legislature to convene; Discounts at Magnolia; Festival of Lights is nation’s third-best.
Charleston reader Kristina Wheeler sends along the Mystery Photo above to tantalize other readers. Clue: There might be an object in the photo that suggests where this is. Send your guesses to editor@charlestoncurrents.com — and make sure to include the town you live in for identification purposes.
More than 200 old photos and maps involving the Charleston area and more of South Carolina are part of a new collection of 180,000 high-resolution digital images that have been released into the public domain by the New York Public Library. Above is a stereoscopic image — a 19th century version of an image that you could use special glasses similar to the more modern View-Master to get a 3-D image — of cotton drying on a roof of a warehouse in downtown Charleston in the late 1870s.
The crazy warm weather at the end of the year flushed a strawberry patch out of dormancy at Boone Hall Plantation at the end of December, which led to five days of berry-picking. “We put it up on Facebook and people came running,” said Boone Hall Farms manager Tim Junkins. On Sunday, there were only a few of the fresh berries left, but the folks at the store also have been using them to make fresh strawberry ice cream. Photo courtesy of Boone Hall Farms.
Calendar for Jan. 4, 2016 + — Free play day at Children’s Museum, three events for the inauguration of Mayor-elect John Tecklenburg, where you can learn to make a sweetgrass basket; more.
Delicious! tells the tale of Billie Breslin, a Californian in her early twenties who takes a job as an assistant at the most iconic food magazine in New York. Billie has an unusual talent for identifying spices and combining flavors, which attracts the attention of her new colleagues and culinary acquaintances in the city. When Delicious is surprisingly shut down, Billie is offered a job to stay behind in the magazine’s deserted downtown mansion offices to answer the magazines “Delicious Guarantee” and respond to complaints and recipe inquiries from the public.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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