Mount Pleasant Magazine Sept/Oct 2014

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The bunker is still within easy
walking distance of the ocean, of
course, which is a major reason
Jamie Edens chose to move
his family into the home at its
northeast corner, near Station
31, in 2008. Edens grew up on
the Isle of Palms and attended
Sullivan’s Island Elementary
School, and he wanted his chil-
dren to be able to do the same.
“I bought this house to make
that happen,” said Edens.
His home is slightly lower
than the one Curd lived in. The
ammunition for the guns was
stored in the center section,
and the bunker sloped down to
either side to make it easier to
move the shells.
The dirt and sand that once covered the Edens home was removed long ago
from the top of the 150-foot-long house. A sunken patio, half inside and half
on the front porch, marks where one of the 12-inch cannons once sat inside
a rotating carriage. Similar to the Curd home, the Edens residence has five
bedrooms and a huge living area. Another similarity is that heating and cool-
ing isn’t a problem. Edens pointed out that his electric bills run only around
$140 a month, a bargain for a
7,000-square-foot home.
“In the winter, the house stays
warm all the time, and in the
summer, there’s no need for mas-
sive amounts of air conditioning,”
he said.
Another advantage of living in a
bunker is that Edens isn’t concerned
with many of the problems people
who live in “normal” homes must
deal with.
“I don’t have to worry about
shingles, paint or termites,” he
pointed out.
With walls that are 10 to 15 feet
thick, violent storms probably aren’t
an issue either. When Hurricane
Hugo punished Sullivan’s Island in
1989, the home suffered only minor damage, while many other houses on the
island were all but destroyed.
Battery Marshall never served its original function – to repel an invasion
along the East Coast. It did, however, satisfy a more lasting purpose, as a solid
and durable home for several Sullivan’s Island families.
When the federal government built the bunker, there were
no homes between it and the Atlantic ocean.
Jim Curd, left, and his dad, Bob, at the dining room table
inside their bunker home.
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2014