Filling stations sprang up across peninsular Charleston in the 1920s nearly three decades after two New England bicycle mechanics made the first gasoline-powered car that ushered in mass produced automobiles.
In Charleston, gas pumps alongside car repair bays were not always welcomed, especially when they replaced historic properties.
Standard Oil Company in 1929 demolished three single houses erected between 1782 and 1805 at Meeting and Chalmers streets to build a filling station.
The new gas station at 108 Meeting St. sparked the city’s preservation movement that led to city preservation ordinances and historic preservation groups, including the Historic Charleston Foundation (HCF), founded in 1947.
When the gas pumps at Standard Oil’s old Exxon station were switched off, HCF purchased the property in 1985. The organization used it for a variety of purposes, including as its current retail gift shop.
This year at the end of February, the foundation will close the shop as it follows a new strategic plan that calls for reducing retail operations, HCF president and CEO Winslow Hastie told the Charleston City Paper.
HCF plans to lease the 4,500-square-foot T-shaped brick building, Hastie said. The building might be best used by the city government or as a light commercial space or offices, but not as a hotel, he said.
“We aren’t going to allow that to happen,” he stressed. He added that HCF is also sensitive to the adjacent residential neighborhood.
HCF will keep its retail shops in the City Market and shops in its Aiken-Rhett and Nathaniel Russell museum houses, Hastie said. “We want to grow our [online] commerce,” he added.
Shop closing is part of strategic plan
Closing the Meeting Street shop is among the recommendations in a strategic plan that recently caused an uproar when the HCF announced it wants to sell the Nathaniel Russell House at 51 Meeting St.
The initial announcement left open the possibility the historic property could become a private home. After a petition drive collected more than 7,000 signatures of people upset about a possible sale of the museum house to a private buyer, Hastie then said the foundation will ensure the house remains a publicly accessible historic site.
The only decision the foundation’s board made, he said, was to sell the Nathaniel Russell House. No decision was made on price, buyer or timeline for a sale, he said.
The strategic plan charts a new path for the foundation for the next three to five years. It examines the HCF’s advocacy role and calls for the organization to hire more staff to focus on land use issues, development, sustainable tourism and sea level rise and flooding, he said. “There is a lot that we think needs our attention, so that is [driving] the strategic plan,” he said.
HCF also wants to expand its two-year-old Common Cause Loan Fund that helps long-standing city residents, mostly in downtown Charleston, remain in their homes. The fund makes loans for home repairs.
“This is an anti-gentrification and anti-displacement program that also preserves the existing affordable housing,” Hastie said.
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