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| Sergeant Jasper, Colonial Lake, Charleston, S.C. |
As it stands today, the big, brown Sergeant Jasper apartment building on Lockwood Boulevard (or Broad Street, if you'd like) shoots up 150 feet into the Lowcountry air. It has 14 occupied floors, plus two additional floors for mechanical equipment. There is also 17,000-square-feet of commercial space leased by doctor's offices, insurance and financial planning companies, and a minimart, while a mix of college students, MUSC nurses and interns, young urban professionals, and retirees live in the 221 one- and two-bedroom units. And these are very, very small apartments.If those walls could talk we might have an interesting book about Charleston. Each former tenant could write a chapter.
"If you want to have a refrigerator, you have to put it in your closet because there's not room to put one in your kitchen," explains Kent Johnson, vice president of the Beach Co., which owns the Sergeant Jasper. The pipes for the plumbing systems are so small that the units can't have garbage disposals or dishwashers. And the whole place smells a little funny.
I like to throw in a bonus shot with a cool automobile for Lowandslow. That usually earns me a comment!
7 comments:
Progress, yes. But sad progress at the same time. It is a cool old building. And a lot of people rely on those small apartments because they are fairly low rent for downtown.
The 50s and 60s weren't a good time for architecture, were they?
I feel a little sorry that I never lived there. It seems like it should be part of the experience.
No, they weren't. Often sturdier than today's buildings though. I am in a little cinderblock rancher from that period now.
I know it might be a hardship for long-term residents to find a new place, but the absence of this building from the city's architectural inventory will be a good thing in my opinion.
But let's hope that car isn't removed with it!
I'm guessing the owner of the cool automobile does not live in one of the apartments.
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