|
Hello! Climb in. You're
now taking a [virtual] drive through Hollywood, South Carolina - circa
2004.
We're ‘driving’ South, with the City of Charleston behind us about 20 miles.
Because if you only see
Charleston, you can’t say you know what South Carolina is all
about!
Some of my favorites:
There are so many churches and so close together because each church began with a small family based congregation that had to get to church by walking from their homes.
Here's some background of the architecture and social history of these churches.
The first sign of
a community is the building of churches. Early America, seen by some
as the Promised Land, drew people to whom the relationship to their
God was central to social habits, to education, to every aspect of
life. A basic pattern for churches was established by James Gibbs,
who in his publication: A Book of Architecture,1728 popularized
the steepled and porticoed churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren,
architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Gibbs book not only
made the spire and the belfry reaching towards heaven ubiquitous in
the 18th century, it also had a lasting influence into the 20th century.
In Hollywood [and in most of South Carolina], churches are segregated racially. Martin Luther King said “Segregation is the Negros burden and America's shame”.
We can stop here for a while to contemplate another kind of spirituality.
The name of this creek
also has two possible sources. Some people think it's an Indian name
but most likely it is from the Gullah "too good to go" [Gullah
is both a name of a people and a name of a local language. The language
came from African roots, was planted in American soil, and nourished
by various English dialects.
It’s not certain where the name Hollywood came from originally.
They have lived in this area their whole lives. Jackie is a local historian with a lot of information on Hollywood. He told me that is was originally part of a larger area called St. Paul’s Parish.
Most of the architecture in this area is very different from the City of Charleston as the area was orginally agricultural.
We're now hitting the main part of town, which is in the middle of our drive.
Here's the Town Hall.
We can stop at one of the restaurants:
or you're welcome to stay for dinner later. I'm having steamed crabs, okra + tomatoes and green beans. I'll be making the Low Country version: with pecans added to the cooked beans and sautéed with butter and a chopped shallot.
That's Kim Odom, The Branch Manager of the local library.
As we continue driving, we'll be passing Dorothy Dunmeyer's house.
Now we're out of town and into a very rural part of Hollywood.
Hope you enjoyed drivin' thru Hollywood!
You can send your thoughts to this e-mail address: hollywood_SC@hotmail.com and some of these will be posted on this site.
This web site is an aspect of an artist project by laurie halsey brown* titled: drivin' thru Hollywood: The Social History, Built and Natural Environment of Hollywood, South Carolina.
The artist wishes to thank the people of Hollywood and especially those that took the time to contribute to this project: Jackie and Caroline Boineau, Dorothy Dunmeyer, Rev.Robert Hodges [who also warmly welcomed me to one of his services], Kim Odom [and the other local librarians], Mayor Gerald Schuster and Nancy Tweed.To learn more about the Hollywood area, visit the Caw Caw Interpretive Center in nearby Ravenel: www.ccprc.com/cawcaw.htm This project was funded in part by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs and the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts program through their joint adminstration of the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts program and the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
|
