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Summerville History Book Published

To commemorate its Sesquicentennial, the Town of Summerville published a book covering 300 years of area history in 1997. However, Summerville's roots extend 150 years before her 1847 incorporation date, making her history span three centuries.

Entitled Summerville, the book traces both the scope and the depth of those years in a volume of nearly 500 pages
with over 300 pictures, including original art. The book is hard bound in an 8 1/2 by 11 inch format.

Ordering Information
Summerville can be purchased from Town Hall by calling 843-871-6000.The book is $25 a copy and can be signed and personalized by the author on request.

About Us

Summerville Plantation House

Summerville opens in 1630 in Dorchester, England, when a new wave of puritans was embarking for the New England Colony. Their descendants came to the Carolina Province late in 1696, landing in Charleston. They sailed up to the headwaters of the Ashley River past magnificent plantations and early in 1697 founded the colonial town of Dorchester. A century later the site of Summerville was settled by a mixture of the descendants of these earlier residents as a refuge from the summer heat and annual malaria scourge of the Lowcountry. Trees, particularly pines, provided the seasonal protection and became vital to the growth and development of the settlement of Summerville.

The village was incorporated to protect the trees. The first ordinance, passed in 1848, restricted the cutting of trees. This law is believed to be the oldest of its kind still in force in the country.

Summerville survived the Civil War and served that cause as a support area for regional Confederate headquarters, troop staging and as a hospital center. She became a health resort and tourist Mecca at the turn of the last century, after overcoming Reconstruction as well as a major earthquake and a devastating downtown fire. The town is an anomaly: a pineland village that endured.

Adopting the motto "The Flower Town in the Pines" 73 years ago, Summerville retains her floral beauty in municipal and private gardens. She also is noted for her architectural beauty as well as her educational system and her quality of life in both the arts and sports.