3/26, full issue: Growth, smartphones, big gift, more

It’s a mystery if you’ve been living under a rock

So if you’ve been living under a rock or don’t live in Charleston, you might not know what this is.  But to make this week’s challenge a little tougher, the mystery isn’t to identify this ship (but you should send that anyway).  The mystery is to identify the person who gave the ship its name.   (He told us over the weekend that he was honored to name this ship.) Send your guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com with “Mystery Photo” in the subject line.   Please make sure to include your name and contact information.

Last issue’s mystery

The March 19 mystery, shown at right, showed a grand building at Kensington Plantation along the Wateree River in Richland County near Eastover.

Congratulations to Tom Tindall of Edisto Island and George Graf of Palmyra, Va., who identified the photo.

Tindall sent along this information on the building:  “Construction of the Kensington Plantation House began in 1851 and was completed in 1853. Its builder, Colonel Richard Singleton, was a wealthy planter of cotton. His sister was Angelica Singleton Van Buren, daughter-in-law and hostess of President Martin Van Buren in the White House, and a frequent visitor to Kensington. The design is unique in its predominantly Italianate elaboration wedged into a plain farmhouse. Listed in the National Register January 25, 1971.

“The entire plantation property was purchased by Union Camp (later becoming International Paper) in 1981 as a part of its huge papermill on the Wateree River. The plantation house is currently closed to the public ostensibly while International Paper completes repairs.

Graf provided more detail: “According to bestvacationspots.net, the house stands on what was known as Headquarters Plantation on the Wateree River in Richland County, directly across the river from the Singleton family seat in Sumter County.

“Charleston architects Edward C. Jones and Francis D. Lee designed Kensington Mansion. It has 29 rooms and 12,000 square feet of floor space. The raised basement contains a massive cistern that held 10,000 gallons of water for household use. The original kitchen building stands beside the main house. Jacob Stroyer (1848-1909), who was enslaved on the plantation, documented antebellum life here in his memoir My Life in the South, first published in 1879.

“Robert Pickett Hamer (1863-1911) purchased Kensington Plantation in 1910. His son, Robert Cochrane Hamer, and his family lived here until 1941 when the U. S. government purchased the property. After World War II, the government sold the land and it eventually became a dairy farm.

“During the middle part of the twentieth century, the house fell into disrepair. It was unoccupied for many years and was finally used as a storage building for grain and farm supplies.  International Paper, formerly Union Camp, acquired the Kensington Mansion in 1981 and restored the house to its former glory. The Scarborough-Hamer Foundation furnished the mansion in 1996 with antiques from the Scarborough, Hamer and related families.”

Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.

MYSTERY PHOTO:  It’s a mystery if you’ve been living under a rock

FOCUS:  Charleston region to continue strong growth, forecast predicts

COMMENTARY, Brack:  Are smartphones, social media making us dumber?

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Charleston Gaillard Center

GOOD NEWS:  Pearlstine gift helps to launch new West Ashley Theatre Center

FEEDBACK:  Send us your thoughts

S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA:   Erskine College

CALENDAR, March 26+:  Business workshops, Vietnam Vets Day, Bluegrass Fest

FOCUS: Charleston region to continue strong growth, forecast predicts

Staff reports  | Strong growth is predicted for the next year for the Charleston region, according to the Charleston Metro Chamber’s 2018 economic forecast revealed last week.  Highlights include:

Continued growth.  The economic forecast indicates continued strong growth across the region, according to a press release. The national, state and local economies are all expected to grow over the next 18 to 24 months, with national GDP growth projected at some of the strongest rates in years.

More industry.  Locally, the region continues to grow and attract major industry, particularly in the advanced manufacturing, logistics and transportation, life sciences and IT sectors.  Forecasters said they did not foresee anything on the horizon to slow the job and population growth fueling the local region’s economy for the next two years.

Local issues.  There is a growing awareness of the link between congestion, jobs and housing., according to the forecast. Now the region’s challenge is implementing solutions to solve them.

The chamber said the key to the success of the annual forecast has been the Economic Outlook Board, whose collective insight provides information that may not be picked up in a statistical analysis of the data. The board often has information on future developments that no statistical model would capture. Furthermore, the data is typically reported in a lag – the Economic Outlook Board reviews the statistical forecast and adds the “real-time, real-knowledge” insight into the actual performance of the local economy.

The forecast is based upon historical data tracked and collected by the Chamber’s Center for Business Research. Data on each of the key economic indicators that drive the region’s economy are collected and provided to the College of Charleston’s School of Business and the data is reviewed by Dr. Frank Hefner. Using an econometric forecasting model, a projection for each indicator is developed. The model also forecasts national indicators.

“Through their expertise of the local market and work with the computer model, the Economic Outlook Board makes the forecast relevant and usable to the public,” said Mary Graham, chief strategy officer for the Charleston Metro Chamber. “Last year 80 percent of our forecast was correct and we are hoping for the same or better results this year.”

• For more information or to view the forecast, visit www.charlestonchamber.org/economicforecast.
• Have a comment? Send to:  editor@charlestoncurrents.com

BRACK: Are smartphones, social media making us dumber?

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |   That smartphone in your pocket may be neat and shiny, but it also may be making you dumber.

We love these mobile devices because they allow us to be connected instantly to business and personal emails, cute cat videos, music, the latest news, weather updates and a wealth of data.  There’s more computing power in a smartphone, it is said, than there was in the first rocket that took man to the moon.  Smartphones give us answers to questions we’ve got and connect us to long-lost friends through the power of social media.  They’re so packed with apps and cool things that we often forget they’re also phones.

But these devices have down sides too.  They keep us connected and our attention ALL OF THE TIME.  The screens are computerized black holes that suck our attention and intelligence into the void of information being collected by the Facebooks and Amazons of the world.

If you think you’re alone when you are on your phone, you’re smoking something still illegal in South Carolina.  Every time you click “like” or take a poll or fill out a fun survey or retweet something or click frame after frame of an inane post on the 25 things you can do to be a better cook, you are giving important data about your choices and preferences to data miners who profile you and sell your data.  In fact, every time you don’t click on something in your news feed or list of tweets, you are sending a message that you’re not interested in something – which is information in and of itself.

George Orwell and his Big Brother watching us in 2018 would be fascinated – and horrified.

(If you’re getting antsy right now and are starting to wonder what else you could be finding out on your favorite social media outlet, go on over there and get it out of your system.  But come back and finish reading.)

Smartphones are the new normal in our American culture that is more partisan and split than ever.  More than three out of four American adults own a smartphone, up from a third in 2011, according to Pew Research.  About half of smartphone owners say the device is something they can’t live without.  They like the freedom offered by smartphones and how it connects them to people.  And most say they’re worth the cost.

But if you’ve ever watched someone with their head angled down in a meeting or walking down the street oblivious to the world around them, you start to understand how these devices are as addictive as opioids.  Take a phone away from a kid for an hour and you’ll quickly see evidence of anxiety and phone withdrawal.

It’s scary how much we’re using phones.  A time-tracking service found “the average person spends four hours a day interacting with his or her phone,” author Catherine Price wrote in February in The New York Times.

Even more worrying:  One 2017 study shows 42 percent of kids up to age 8 have tablets and the amount of time they are spending on them is skyrocketing.  Heavy smartphone use by kids is being blamed for social isolation, anxiety, increased depression and more.

“By the age of 14 the average child will have sent more than 35,000 texts, 30,000 WhatsApp messages and racked up more than three solid weeks of video chat,” according to a 2017 study commissioned by Monqi, a British smartphone company.  “The modern youngster will also have spent a full six months looking at their phone during that time period, averaging 135 minutes’ use a day.”

Yet another study highlights the addictive power of smartphones – even if the phone is on the other side of the room and turned face down.  “Cognitive capacity and overall brain power are significantly reduced,” says an article in Psychology Today.

It’s time for Americans – particularly kids – to start using smartphones and social media differently. Too many have become obsessed and are paying more attention to phones and social media than real, live people.  We need to break up, as Price writes, from the addiction and be smarter about how we use devices.

Best thing to do with smartphones:  Turn them off for several hours so you can concentrate.  If people really need you, they can leave voicemails.

• Have a comment?  Send to:  editor@charlestoncurrents.com

SPOTLIGHT:  Charleston Gaillard Center

Today we shine a spotlight on a new underwriter:  Charleston Gaillard Center, which provides the Lowcountry with a world-class performance hall, elegant venue space and vibrant educational opportunities that inspire dynamic community throughout the area through the power of the performing arts.  The Center’s vision is to enrich the diverse community of Charleston with artistic and cultural experiences that are accessible and unique, and to serve as an educational resource for generations to come.

Did you know that the Charleston Gaillard Center is a 501c3 non-profit that works with over 25,000 students each year from the tri-county area?  Promoting education is one of the core values of the Charleston Gaillard Center and an integral part of our mission. By broadening the reach of arts-education in the Lowcountry the Gaillard Center encourages learning through the arts and serves as a powerful tool for student achievement and personal development while providing people of all ages with the opportunity to cultivate and grow their talents and appreciation for the arts.  To learn more about our education initiative, click here: www.gaillardcenter.org/outreach.

For more information, click the links below:

• Buy tickets and see our great events
• Become a member today
• Plan your event at the Charleston Gaillard Center
• Learn about our education and community programs  h
• Contact the Gaillard Center.  

GOOD NEWS:  Pearlstine gift helps to launch new West Ashley Theatre Center

From left are: Jan Pearlstine Lipov, Julian Wiles and Susan Pearlstine. (Photo provided.)

Staff reports  |  The Pearlstine Family Fund has donated $250,000 to help pay for the $1 million West Ashley Theatre Center performance and education facility being built in Ashley Landing on Sam Rittenberg Blvd.

The facility’s 127-seat performance venue will be known as the Pearlstine Theatre and is nicknamed “The Pearl,” according to Charleston Stage Founder and Producing Director Julian Wiles.

“With this very generous $250,000 gift, Charleston Stage has now raised $850,000 for this new 10,000 square foot performance/education facility,” Wiles said in a press release.  “We still need to raise another $200,000 to complete the project, but we’re well on our way.

“We are very grateful to the Pearlstine family for providing this very generous lead gift and of course welcome additional donors to this special project. We have launched an adopt-a-seat campaign and encourage donors to name a seat in honor of someone special. You may adopt-a-seat online at CharlestonStage.com/Adopt-a-Seat.”
Wiles said Charleston Stage’s MainStage productions would continue to be produced at the historic Dock Street Theatre in downtown Charleston.  But the new West Ashley Theatre Center will bring new productions and new theatre education classes to West Ashley.

Also in Good News.

Giving Tree.  The Lowcountry Food Bank last week honored donors who gave at least $5,000 by placing a personalized apple on its Giving Tree.  “This Giving Tree represents more than $2.5 million in donations. It represents those children and those seniors and those families who don’t always know where their next meal is coming from,” said Pat Walker, LCFB president and CEO. “Here’s what your donations enabled us to do — we distributed more than 28 million pounds of food, with almost eight million pounds of that being fresh produce last year.”

Student readers.  Congratulations to the 30-plus students at Charles Towne Montessori who raised $7,882.41 for the Lowcountry Food Bank through a one-day read-a-thon recently.  They’ll visit the nonprofit on April 10 to deliver the check.  (Maybe the school should get an apple too!)

My Father’s Dragon art.  The Charleston Gaillard Center will feature elementary student art during its inaugural art installation.  Par of the Gaillard’s Education Initiative, the center will feature art by students from M/C. Hursey and Murray LaSaine elementary schools from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the main lobby through April 11.  Teachers incorporated arts into the students’ daily curriculum by embracing “My Father’s Dragon,” a story by Ruth Stiles Gannett.  While the story was read aloud to students, they also were encouraged to draw what they were listening to “to have a much broader vision and more thorough understanding,” a news release said.  Students also participated in ceramic dragon-making during the program.

Great internship.  Hats off to Eleis Lester, a horticulture student at Trident Technical College who has been picked for a gardening internship this summer in Paris at the Garden of Bagatelle.  Lester is the fourth Trident student to participate in the internship that Magnolia sponsors with the French Heritage Society in Paris. The local program, established in 2011, also receives support from the Alliance Française de Charleston.

• Have a comment? Send to:  editor@charlestoncurrents.com

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HISTORY:  Erskine College

S.C. Encyclopedia  |  In 1836 the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church organized an academy in Due West. A professor of divinity was added the next year, and the institution was incorporated as Clark and Erskine Seminary. When more faculty were added in 1839, the institution became the first four-year denominational college in South Carolina. About 1843 the name was shortened to Erskine College and the theological seminary became an adjunct of the college. The school took its name from the eighteenth-century Scottish theologian and reformer Ebenezer Erskine. While women began attending the college in 1894, their numbers were significantly increased when the Due West Female College, organized in 1859 by Associate Reformed Presbyterians, merged with Erskine in 1927.

From its founding, the college played an important role in nurturing the social and cultural cohesion of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Generations of Associate Reformed Presbyterians from across the South sent their children to college in Due West. In addition to its formal curriculum, Erskine taught an ethic of simplicity, frugality, the value of work, social responsibility, and the importance of the life of the mind. A moderate Calvinism that emphasized not only God’s sovereignty but also God’s grace marked the life of the town, the church, and the college.

In the 1830s leaders in the establishment of Erskine challenged the South Carolina law that made it illegal to teach slaves to read. They insisted that Christian liberty to obey the Word of God and to teach their slaves to read the Bible overrode the rights of slaveowners to protect their property. Their resistance continued into the 1850s.

Following the Civil War, the college struggled to rebuild its endowment, which had been largely wiped out, and its enrollment, which had reached more than one hundred students before the war. The poverty of the region and the isolation of Due West from centers of population made the recovery long and difficult.

Nevertheless, Erskine was able to receive accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges in 1925. Beginning in the 1950s, the college successfully conducted capital fund campaigns that allowed for expansion of the campus and a substantial increase in its endowment. A campaign begun in 1992 raised more than $30 million.

Erskine boasts faculty who have won state and regional awards for excellence in teaching. By the late 1990s the college had an undergraduate enrollment of 575 and a faculty of forty full-time and ten part-time professors, and it had been classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a BAI institution, the foundation’s top classification of liberal arts colleges nationally. While Erskine continued to maintain its close ties with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, it was drawing students from more diverse backgrounds.

— Excerpted from an entry by Erskine Clarke.   To read more about this or 2,000 other entries about South Carolina, check out The South Carolina Encyclopedia, published in 2006 by USC Press. (Information used by permission.)

CALENDAR, March 26+:  Business workshops, Vietnam Vets Day, Bluegrass Fest

(NEW) Small Business Enterprise 101:  11 a.m. to noon, March 29, April 26, and the last Thursday of the month through October.  Charleston County Government’s Contracts and Procurement Department will offer free workshops on small business enterprise development at the Perimeter Building, 4050 Bridge View Drive, Suite 500, North Charleston.  Register in advance by clicking here.

(NEW) Vietnam Veterans Day: Ceremony at 1 p.m., March 30, Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, Mount Pleasant.  Free admission is available to Vietnam veterans to mark the 50^th anniversary of the war.

Charleston Bluegrass Festival:  March 30-31, Awendaw, S.C.  Awendaw Green and Sewee Outpost will showcase of some of our favorite local and regional Bluegrass bands and introduce a few new ones you will love at this family-friendly event.  Tickets range from $15 to $25 for adults.  Learn more.

Easter Promenade: 11 a.m., March 31, along Broad Street between Meeting and East Bay streets.  The Hat Ladies’ 17th annual Easter Promenade Saturday offers viewers an elegant stroll by the Hat Ladies wishing all a “HaTpy Easter!  More:  www.hatladies.org

Wine Down Wednesdays:  5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., on April 4, April 18 and May 2, Old Towne Creek County Park, West Ashley.  While this new county park is not yet open daily to the public, these Wednesday opportunities offer Lowcountry residents the chance to experience the beauty of this property. Tickets needed.  More:  CharlestonCountyParks.com/WDW.

Lowcountry Cajun Festival:  Noon to 6 p.m., April 8, James Island County Park.  This festival of Cajun music and food brings Louisiana living to the Lowcountry.  After getting a fill of outstanding food, festival-goers can kick off their shoes and dance to live, non-stop Zydeco and Cajun music, performed on stage throughout the day by Charleston’s Shrimp City Slim at 1 p.m., Jeffery Broussard and The Creole Cowboys at 2:30 p.m., and Nathan Williams and The Zydeco Cha Chas at 4:30 p.m.  Admission to the Lowcountry Cajun Festival is $15. The event is free for ages 12 and under with a paying adult. For more information, call 843-795-4386 or visit CharlestonCountyParks.com.

Books for Bier: 5::30 p.m. to 8 p.m., April 10, Bay Street Biergarten, East Bay St., Charleston.  The Charleston Friends of the Library will have their third annual Books for Bier event to celebrate National Library Week.  As the event name implies, bring a gently used book to Bay Street Biergarten and receive one free beer! Also, any child who brings a children’s book to donate will receive a free root beer! (Limit one beverage per person).  More: www.CharlestonLibraryFriends.org.

Designer showcase: Through April 15, 142 Tradd St., Charleston.  The Charleston Symphony Orchestra League will present its Symphony Designer Showhouse with proceeds to benefit the league and scholarships.  The showcase house, a three-story stucco home built around 1870 on one of Charleston’s classic streets, will display twelve exquisitely decorated spaces designed by locally and nationally renowned interior designers.  For more on tickets and information, click here.

Charleston Outdoor Festival: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 20 and 21, James Island County Park. The weekend festival includes a multitude of outdoor recreation activities like mountain biking, slack lining, archery, climbing, and disc golf, open to all ages. It also features the East Coast Canoe and Kayak Symposium, one of the country’s premier showcases of canoeing, kayaking and stand up paddleboarding. Try out equipment, compete in tournaments and other hands-on activities, and learn everything from the basics to expert skills in each sport. Park admission starts at $2 per person. To try activities, get the Try It pass for $10. Or, register for the symposium for classes, demos and much more. For a full event schedule, visit charlestoncountyparks.com or call 843-795-4386.

Antique tractor show and pull: 1 p.m., April 21, 5146 Highway 174, Adams Run.  Gates will open at 9 a.m. as people flock to see more than 50 fully restored farm tractors from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s on display along with vintage automobiles.  Food vendors and games for children make the event fun for the whole family. Tractor-pulling contest begins at 1 p.m.  Admission is $5 for adults; children under 12 are free. No pets; no alcohol.  More information, contact, Pete Laurie, 843-822-2057.

Early morning bird walks at Caw Caw:  8:30 a.m. every Wednesday and Saturday, Caw Caw Interpretive Center, Ravenel.  You can learn about habitats and birds, butterflies and other organisms in this two-hour session.  Registration not required, but participants are to be 15 and up.  $10 per person or free to Gold Pass holders.  More:  http://www.CharlestonCountyParks.com.

Farmers markets in the area

SATURDAYS:  Johns Island Farmers Market operates each Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. year-round with more than 50 local farmers and vendors, food trucks, music and more.  The market is located on the campus of Charleston Collegiate School, 2024 Academy Road, Johns Island.

SATURDAYS: The Town Market on James Island are again open.  On March 17 and March 24, it will be open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the James Island Youth Soccer Club, 871 Fort Johnson Road, James Island.  Starting March 31, it will be open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Coming soon:

WEDNESDAYS: West Ashley Farmers Market is open 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Wednesday from April 25 to Oct. 3 in Ackerman Park, 55 Sycamore Ave., West Ashley.

SATURDAYS:  Charleston Farmers Market opens every 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday starting April 15 every Saturday through Nov. 24 at Marion Square.  A holiday market will be open Dec. 1, 2, 8. 9, 15 and 16.

• If you have an event to list on our calendar, please send it to editor@charlestoncurrents.com for consideration.  The calendar is updated weekly on Mondays.

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