Saks Fifth Avenue decided to build a new store in old Charleston, SC. At the corner of King and Market…of course. King Street, for other non-Charlestonians, is the old and still thriving business district…more later…What wasn’t so apparent was that Saks would commission a complete and thorough archaeological and social dig into the area they had chosen. I will get to some of their deeper dig findings as we go along…and there are many.

While the project itself was in the next block over, it had a huge spillover effect on my exact block and immediate neighborhood. The introductory newspaper article had the photo below on the front page. It shows Canterbury House and the state of the lot across Market Street. (I am forever finding photos that just barely hint at the parking lot directly at the corner of Archdale and Market…but Canterbury House and parking is part of the City’s and Sak’s plan for my block…

The Post and Courier, Monday October 24, 1994…front page

I will summarize the article that continued on page 9:

Saks Fifth Avenue has planned their development to encompass the block from King to Archdale and Market to Princess. Not only will there be a 425-car parking garage built as part of the store, a little strip for other retail shops and a restaurant built behind their store down running down Market to almost the corner of Archdale but there may be a hotel or apartments above the shops. The landmark Rivera Theater across Market Street will also be renovated. The Beach Company said it will cost $20-$30 million and they will start building by March 1995…as plans have the “strong approval of City Council.”

The other numbered sites on the newspaper insert map show places that will also be impacted by their plans.

Celia’s Porta Via Restaurant…Beaufain and Archdale…is planning a renovation of her place as the restaurant was built in 1807. Celia is quoted on the front page as saying that “no one could find her” before.

The city of Charleston, a part-owner of the triangle lot behind Celia’s Porta Via, will landscape and pave the area. The lot had been no-charge “but will be changed to a mix of metered spaces and spaces rented out by the month.”

As part of the $140,000 project, trees and shrubs will be planted at “two traffic triangles in the area as well as sprucing up the gravel lot in front of Canterbury House.”(I am assuming that means the parking lot…but might be the strip from the front of Canterbury to Market Street…I’ve heard rumors from a knowledgeable resident but no confirmation that Canterbury is still paying rent on that strip that is now their front yard along the fence on Market.)

“This work will really change what is now an unacceptable appearance to a very special appearance for people arriving downtown from Beaufain Street,” city Housing and Economic Director Lawrence Thompson said.”

Two other major developments also brewing: The opening of Market Corner — a new shopping center at the former site of an auto maintenance shop (and Goodyear store on the left…see photo in previous post); and recent repairs to the historic brick and stucco wall around Memminger Elementary School.

Work will hopefully be done by early 1995.

And yet two more things:

The Auditorium across Market and the triangle from Canterbury House, the 1,034-seat Memminger Auditorium built in the 1930’s, was in disrepair. The windows boarded up and plaster chipped…mostly used for gym class…was under consideration for making a million dollar deal…Robert New, chairman of the Charleston County School Board which owns the hall said, “the area surrounding Memminger is becoming a very desirable part of town…”

And then there was Canterbury herself….the article continues with their plans to “improve the neighborhood” by spending $700,000 to upgrade the almost 25-year-old building. They plan to replace the windows and air conditioning units and two elevators. They will also repaint the building where the old air conditioners leaked and stained the surface with mold and mildew. “Canterbury House Maintenance Director Jim Surgeon said they will start next spring” (October now).

The General Notice column was in The Post and Courier classified ads for Friday, December 16, 1994…notice how improvements to downtown have to give a flooding ranking!

It is kind of awesome that building a very high-end store in an old town could generate so much improvement around it. It can give a facelift and hope to an area on the decline. Floating all boats, as it were.

In my mythical dig, though, when new things go up, old things go down.