MYSTERY PHOTO: Spaghetti roadways

Here’s a combobulation of roadways.  Where is it?  Know anything else about it? Send your best guess of what it is as well as something about it.  Send to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our previous Mystery Photo

Our Aug. 10 photo, “Where’s this fountain?” was a tough photo to identify.  It showed a fountain off Ashley Avenue in Allan Park just blocks from Hampton Park in Charleston. 

Congratulations to the three readers who identified it correctly:  Chris Brooks of Mount Pleasant;  George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas.  

Peel writes: “Allan Park is one of the smallest parks in Charleston. The land on which the park resides was donated to the City of Charleston by Mrs. Amey Allan, the widow of James Allan (the developer of most of the eastern half of nearby Hampton Park Terrace parks) in March 1920. Allan’s original design for the park included lining it with palmetto trees, the state tree of South Carolina, as well as a large fountain surrounded by a flower bed located at the center of the park. Sadly, over the years, the maintenance of the park dwindled and by 1924, the fountain water jets had been broken, and the main basin was filled with soil and converted to a raised flower bed. At some point in the park’s history, the palmetto trees were removed and the park lined with the oak trees that populate the park today.

“Allan Park began being used more frequently in the 1990s. For example, during the annual Spoleto festivals, the Charleston Symphony would erect a large stage and tent and perform a concert for many neighbors who brought picnic blankets to the park. In 2000, the neighborhood encouraged the city leaders to replace the original fountain with a new fountain. The design depicted in the mystery photo was chosen, and consisted of a series of three, plain, cast-concrete bowls with water flowing into the main basin. During the first year after its construction, the City maintained the raised beds surrounding the fountain with colorful flowers, but once again park maintenance lagged in the years which followed, and by 2002 (just 2-years after it was installed), the fountain stopped working and again sat idle, until 2004 when the city repaired it back to working order.

“Today, the space has become a gathering place for neighbors and a centerpiece of the surrounding community. The park is well maintained, however, based on the the chips and peeling paint seen in the mystery photo, it does look like the fountain could use a bit of ‘tender loving care.’”

• 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.