In 1670, the English ship Carolina brought colonists to the west bank of the Ashley River. These settlers and their descendants built a flourishing plantation life in what became St. Andrews Parish. The Civil War devastated the plantation society, and the glory years of St. Andrews Parish waned until 1889, when construction of a new toll bridge improved access to West Ashley. A suburban boom that began in the 1920s expanded and revitalized the community. Many of the original families who built homes, churches, schools, and businesses still live in the community today--a testament to the...

Located in the West Ashley area of Charleston, Byrnes Downs is a charming community designed and developed by the V-Housing Corporation in the 1940s. The Long Construction Company built this successful war-housing project of 360 houses that became the lifelong homes for many families. Early settlers who had made homes on the Charleston peninsula traveled west to develop the suburban neighborhoods of St. Andrew's Parish: Byrnes Downs, Albemarle Point, the Crescent, Moreland, Old Windermere, South Windermere, Wappoo Heights, and Westwood.