34 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasantPodcast.com THE PIONEERS For centuries, women have traditionally established and maintained homes but few ventured into the field of selling homes. Even when women sought paying jobs, they were typically clerical positions. But as the business of real estate grew, so did the female presence in the industry. Many of the earliest women in real estate also were suffragettes. Eulalie Chafee Salley of Aiken, South Carolina, entered the profession in order to finance her passion for womens’ rights. She capitalized on wealthy northerners who traveled south for the winter by selling them homes. She catered to their specific needs, down to antique furniture for those homes and providing trained servants and catered meals. Susan Frost, on the other hand, entered the field in order to satisfy her need to preserve Charleston’s historic homes. She borrowed money to buy properties on East Tradd Street, where mansions had fallen into disrepair. A hundred years later, she is still credited with gentrifying that area, displacing poorer residents as she and her hired hands renovated properties for wealthy families. Without Frost’s effort, the Early Real Estate Pioneers Women in Real Estate BY BARBARA MILLEN PATRICK Susan Frost and the men of the Charleston Real Estate Exchange. Established in 1906, it later became the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors.
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