Seashore Farmer's Lodge

Sol Legare Seashore Farmer's Lodge, James Island, SC   

This is one of those unique places that has been on my radar but took me forever to get out there to see it in person and today was the day. Freed slaves settled Sol Legare and their descendants never left. The Charleston City Paper had a great article on it's history when the building was renovated and reopened.

The original settlers of Sol Legare were freed slaves who came to the island in the late 1800s to farm and fish. The community they created embodied the very opposite of slavery. It was autonomous, free, and mutually supportive. The symbol of all that is the Seashore Farmers Lodge, a circa 1915 community center which, thanks to concerned local residents and the help of an exceptionally dedicated genealogist, was recently transformed from a decrepit, hurricane-devastated building to a living museum. "Seashore embodies freedom," Parks says. "We would plant our seeds, farm the land, and we would take it and sell it down on the market. For the longest time, we never worked for anybody but ourselves."