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New home first step in enhancing old town

Published Thursday, November 19, 2009 1:19 PM

By David Berman
Summerville Journal Scene ®

Ashley Chapman is moving to a new home 150 yards from his current one, helping future visitors to his park make a considerably longer journey themselves — to the 18th century trading town of Dorchester.

As an archaeologist and manager of Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site, Chapman is passionate about protecting the last traces of Dorchester, which rest beneath the soil on the 325-acre site.

Revolutionary War-era buttons, wig curlers, fine china, pipe stems and bottles have been found buried under what was a full-fledged trading center on the Ashley River from 1697 through the Revolutionary War.

More of those remnants are likely beneath the house Chapman’s been living in, he said. That’s why the house is to be torn down, and why he’s moving into a new one on less historically significant ground, in a wooded area away from the former town’s footprint.

The State Park Service partnered with Charleston homebuilder Harbor Homes on the new three-bedroom house where Chapman, his wife and two children will live. It was built with $30,000 from the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism and $50,000 in materials contributed from vendors. The contribution from Harbor Homes, a Mungo company, is estimated at close to $100,000.

Mungo principal Steven Mungo said the house, without the land, would sell for about $170,000 on the local real estate market.

Phil Gaines, director of the state park service, said the project allowed them to replace an aging home in bad shape and to protect the integrity of the park at the same time.

At a ribbon-cutting Tuesday, the project was hailed as a successful private-public partnership and as the first step in the state park service’s efforts to make Colonial Dorchester a premier historical destination.

“This is a great example of what can happen when business and government work together rather than working against one another,” Mungo said. “This doesn’t need to be the last time.”

There are no firm plans, but ideas for the park include a new visitors center just off Dorchester Road that Chapman said would be a “pinch-point.” Rather than driving to the center of the park, as they do now, visitors would start at the center and then spill out onto the property.

Chapman envisions a small museum to display the most interesting relics found during digs and guided trails that would recreate the town’s original street grid.

“They could approach the town and essentially have a walk back through time as they walk toward the river in scenic lanes and get a good idea of the history,” he said.

Along the way, unobtrusive signage would mark where taverns, doctor’s offices, schools and shops once stood.

As it is oriented now, the site is not conducive to interpreting history, Chapman said, and his current house has not made it any easier.

The house was built in the 1960s when the land was owned by the state forestry commission, he said. It has remained a ranger’s house since the park opened in 1969.

“From a modern standpoint, we would never build there because it sits on the archaeological footprint and in the viewshed (an area visible to an observer),” he said.

Thinking has changed since then and in the late 1990s, the state park service began to utilize parks based on what made them unique, he said. Some lend themselves to recreation, others to nature and still others, like Colonial Dorchester, are tied to history.

“This marks the first phase in realigning the park’s infrastructure…It represents taking the modern buildings away and giving us some more breathing room,” he said.

As for moving into a brand new house, Chapman said he is “totally elated.”

Contact David Berman at 873-9424 ext. 214 or dberman@journalscene.com

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