31 www. ReadMPM. com | www.MountPl easantMagaz i ne. com | www. ShemCreekRes taurant s . com our town Many families are drawn to Mount Pleasant because of its great schools, variety of sports activities, the wonderful neighborhoods, its lovely parks — the list goes on and on. But some families have known the charm of Mount Pleasant for generations, long before it grew into a bustling suburb approaching 100,000 residents. Anne DuPre Royall’s family is one. Her branch of the family lived in Bayview Acres; the first subdivision built in the town. “I’ve only lived in two houses – the one I grew up in and the one I live in now which was my maternal grandmother’s house,” she said. “My parents’ house was built in 1951 and was one of the first in the neighborhood, so there were lots of woods where we’d play. We called one street Bunny Road because we’d see so many marsh rabbits! We had a rowboat and I still have my father’s huge cast net, which was handmade 75 years ago by John Wright, a local African-American fisherman.“ Anne recollected that her family did all their shopping in the Old Village. “Every Saturday, we’d get groceries at Coleman’s Red and White. Kenney’s Department Store was there too as well as the hardware store, the Pitt Street Pharmacy and the post office. I remember when Moultrie Shopping Center was built. The day it opened, they gave out little prizes to the kids. We were so excited!” Anne attended Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church in the Old Village. “The church was small, so we knew everyone,” she said. “Our Sunday School teacher’s family had the doughnut shop and, to get us to come to Sunday School, he would give us a voucher to get doughnuts and a milkshake if we came so many times. I had no choice about going, so I got the vouchers! Daddy and I would go together to the shop. He would also take us to Patriots Point to look for shark’s teeth and all kinds of treasures that had been brought up from the harbor floor,” Anne related, explaining that at the time, the area was being created from the silt dredged up from the harbor. Anne’s father, Jervey Royall, worked at the Charleston Naval Shipyard, the major employer in the area at the time. Her mother, Mary-Julia, was a prominent organist in many local churches and also served as Mount Pleasant’s town historian. She authored two popular books filled with photos depicting the Mount Pleasant of yesteryear. Another lifelong resident, Pearl Vanderhorst Ascue, grew up in 2 Mile. “The whole area was our farm,” recalled Ascue. Her family’s farmhouse was the pink house across from what is now Dominion Energy on Chuck Dawley Boulevard. Aside from farming, her parents, Robert and Virginia Thompson Vanderhorst, also operated a small grocery store and gas station there. “We had about 35 acres, now the neighborhoods of Hickory Shadows, Rosemead, Mallard Lakes and Bentley Ward Court, and additional farmland on what is now Chuck Dawley Boulevard,” Ascue said. “We went out early before school to pick okra and cucumbers and pecans, and we’d sort it all out later. We sold produce to Piggly Wiggly and other supermarkets. Daddy also had a stall at the City Market downtown in the 1960s selling kale, mustard greens, collards and other vegetables. We lived off the land.” Her great-grandparents first owned the property, but her father developed it into a big truck farm. They also farmed another 60 acres of A Blast from Our Past Mount Pleasant families recite memories of growing up in town BY MARY COY Anne DuPre Roya l l .
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