Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2019

37 www.ReadMPM.com | www.BestOfMP.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com BY BRIAN SHERMAN D ecades ago, Hamlin, located on both sides of Rifle Range Road north of Mount Pleasant, was a rural farming community. Though its mostly black residents lacked paved roads, city water and sewer and convenient places to buy groceries, they enjoyed a close-knit relationship with their neighbors and a long-term attachment to the land – some of them able to claim lineage that stretched back to pre- Revolutionary War times. Today, the majority of Hamlin’s roads are paved, and new homes have sprouted among those that have been there since the 1960s and before. It’s still mostly African- American, but there are some white families, and, after Hurricane Hugo roared through coastal Carolina in 1989, city water arrived for everyone, though some homeowners still rely on septic tanks. According to real estate agent C.J. Garrett-Roth, there are around 350 homes in the area that can be considered to be part of Hamlin. With intense growth, especially to the north and west, much has changed for the people who live in Hamlin, but a distinct sense of community remains, especially for those families that have called the area home for six or seven generations or more. Terry Rouse, whose grandparents were sharecroppers, ADistinct Sense of Community