Community Profile > Charleston, South Carolina

The Best of Two Worlds

In Charleston, South Carolina, old-style graciousness still softens the
edges of modern-day enterprise, which fortunately continues to thrive.

By eileen lockwood

Unique Opportunities Jan/Feb 2009

For Steven Shapiro, MD, make-believe isn’t good enough. He’s happy to be in a genuine historic city rather than one of those recent retro remakes that appeal to some Americans. In 1974, the New Jersey native, now vice-president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at Roper St. Francis Healthcare (RSFH) in Charleston, moved to the city whose slogan is “Where History Lives.”

Shapiro considers this nearly 350-year-old South Carolina coastal enclave “one of four or five unique American cities, such as New Orleans and San Francisco.” His main incentive for the move, of course, was a job offer, but he says, “When I got here, the lifestyle just seemed to fit my personality.” Charleston exudes the quintessential South, but its plunge into modern times is also hard to ignore. Adds Shapiro, “This has become a cosmopolitan, eclectic city where we have everything from high arts to huntin’ and fishin’, all within a few miles’ radius of where anyone lives.”

For golf addicts, South Carolina boasts more than 380 courses “from the mountains to the sea,” with almost 25 public and private links in the Charleston area. The list almost multiplies if not-far-away Hilton Head Island and Myrtle Beach join the mix. But Shapiro begs to opt out of the club-swinging crowd. Instead, he looks forward to water-related outings when his professional obligations give him a break. Besides his administrative duties at the hospital, he’s the principal physician with Low Country Genetics.

“When I lived in New Jersey, we would go to the shore, but it would take four to five hours for a 20-mile trip” thanks to the oppressive traffic. “Here we can get to the beach in 15 minutes almost any day of the week. We really enjoy being on the water, especially if we can sail or be on motorboats,” he says. Five of South Carolina’s many ocean beaches are reached easily from Charleston.

Leisure use, including a growing cruise ship business, is a rather recent addition to the city’s large—and bustling—harbor area, but water has defined wealth in this distinctively southern city since its founding by an English proprietary company in 1670. Shipping soon became the colony’s honey and cake as well as its bread and butter. “Merchandise and trade were the foundation stones of most, if not all, the great fortunes in South Carolina,” wrote historian Edward McCrady.

The unsinkable southern city

Throughout the centuries, rags-to-riches cycles seem to have been a Charleston theme song. Economic downturns followed enemy occupation during the Revolutionary War and the double whammy of Union takeover and port blockade during the Civil War (a.k.a., in these parts, the “War of Northern Aggression”), whose first shots were fired in the assault on Confederate-occupied Fort Sumter in 1861. The mix of misfortune has included five major fires, the Great Earthquake of 1886, and several others. Hurricane Hugo devastated the city in 1989, but it wasn’t the first catastrophic storm to hit. Water rose to the second floors of buildings in a 1699 catastrophe, and a 1911 cataclysm finished off the prosperous rice industry once and for all. But, in every case, gritty citizens refused to be defeated.

Now, just as sailing fleets once crowded the seaport with such cargoes as indigo, rice, and cotton, thousands of container ships come and go to worldwide destinations.

In the 20th century, a huge shipyard and U.S. Navy base continued the water-oriented tradition, leaving a large dent in the economy when they closed. But they’ve been replaced by, as Chamber of Commerce spokesmen put it, “a very significant military presence” —quite an understatement. The “presence” provides 22,000 jobs and includes the Atlantic Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR), a Naval Weapons station and nuclear power training command, and a research facility for armed forces communications systems. The military mix also includes Army, Air Force and Coast Guard installations.

The military and heavy port activity are two buffers against recession woes plaguing so many other U.S. cities. Spokesman Karen Kuchenbecker, at the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, notes a mix of several successful businesses, but singles out two other “economic pillars”—the 10,000-strong Medical University of South Carolina campus, medical complex, and research arm that attracts at least $200 million in annual research funding, and the travel/tourism industry, which can thank those lucrative early businesses for its gargantuan success.

Shipping was the springboard for one of America’s most attractive cities, recently cited by Condé Nast Traveler as readers’ second most popular American tourism destination. One offshoot: Countless couples have chosen the city as a charming setting for the increasingly popular destination weddings. In fact, the Convention & Visitors Bureau now publishes a thick booklet with complete information about every wedding-related service in the area from license bureaus to wedding group transportation, not to mention honeymoon havens.

Historic charm and elegance

What better way to show off success than with the elegant mansions and gardens that would become the stuff of visitor delight three centuries later? According to the South Carolina Historical Society, “The cityscape of modern Charleston is one of the most historic in America.” No fewer than three preservation-related societies keep tabs on many of the 2,000 historic buildings, a good number dating back to the early 1700s and 1800s, in the city and its suburbs. Several homes are open each year for ever-popular spring and fall tours. The Charleston Preservation Society began in the 1920s to save and restore threatened buildings. The mission of the Historic Charleston Foundation, according to communications director Leigh Handal, is “restoring the fabric of otherwise decaying neighborhoods.” Started in 1947, the foundation identifies distressed homes, purchases them, and finds buyers who restore them to their original status.

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