South Carolina is rife with little-known and unprotected historic places to explore – if you know how and where to find them. But few ghost towns are as well-preserved or protected as the abandoned town of Dorchester, found on the Ashley River just outside of Summerville. Dorchester was first settled one hundred years before the start of the Revolutionary War and it thrived for many decades after the close of the war.
And while it's no longer filled with the bustling activity it once was, today, Dorchester is alive with evidence of its past and is part of a 325-acre park perfect for uncovering the history here.
By 1696, a small contingent of settlers migrated south from Dorchester, Massachusetts to settle in what would be named Dorchester, after their MA origin. Many of the ruins seen at the park today are from that period.
As with any new settlement during the period, the new arrivals quickly went to work establishing and building a church. The town's first church was a wooden structure and became known as the Parish of St. George, an Anglican church.
The church was built in 1719 and the bell tower that still stands on the site of the ghost town was added in 1761. During the Revolutionary War, the British occupied Dorchester and before leaving, burned the church to the ground, but the tower remained. Visiting it today, you'll be able to walk underneath the massive structure that was reinforced and restored in the 1960s.
Prior to the start of the Revolutionary War, Dorchester reportedly had a thriving economy. Some say that at low tide you can still see the wooden wharf along the Ashely River that was used for shipping and travel.
Today, the ghost town is also a ghost fort, both were eventually abandoned. The fort, of course, was abandoned after the war came to a close; the town was entirely abandoned a few decades later, although the reasons aren't entirely clear. Some say malaria killed many of the settlers and others moved to escape the illness and the heat.
Have you explored the most well-preserved ghost town in South Carolina? It's officially under the protection and care of the South Carolina State Parks - who doesn't promote it as a ghost town. Instead, it's simply called a 'colonial historic site.'
