Ravenel, South Carolina: A Historic Railroad Town
- CHSMLS
- Jun 18
- 5 min read
Ravenel, South Carolina is a small town located along Highway 17 where Charleston’s sprawl meets the county’s more agricultural character. Due to its Lowcountry characteristics including marshes, swamps, and fertile soil, Ravenel began as plantations and retains its Gullah heritage. It began developing as a rail town in 1859 and today, it attracts residents for its rural draw, small town feel, and large secluded residential lots.
Ravenel, South Carolina Early History
Southern Charleston County was original inhabited by the Kiawah, Stono, Edisto, and Yemassee Native American tribes, who encountered Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonists in the seventeenth century. The plantation lands where Ravenel now lies was originally known as St. Paul’s Parish, an Anglican territorial designation dating back to the early colonial era.
The community is named for the prominent Ravenel family, who owned plantation land in St. Paul’s and property in urban Charleston. Beaufort Lifestyle notes that, “to say the Ravenel family has deep roots in the Lowcountry is a massive understatement. Members of the persecuted French Protestant Huguenot minority in the 17th century, the Ravenels arrived in coastal South Carolina in 1685 and settled in Charleston in 1670.”
Planters made fortunes by cultivating rice and sea island cotton, and the population was majority enslaved. St. Paul’s Church dates to 1900, though its cemetery has stones as far back as 1810. Stono Baptist is also antebellum constructed in 1855.
A Rail Town is Founded
Ravenel was created as a town in 1859 and contained 226 acres divided into 182 half-acre lots, five mid-sized lots, and 20 “garden farms” of several acres each. At that time, the area was part of Colleton County. Ravenel became “a whistle stop and watering place for trains,” and lumber company and grocers began locating their businesses near the rail line. Seaboard Coast Rail and CSX still operate freight connects between Charleston and Savannah.
Revd. Melvin Washington, a lifelong resident, reminisced in the 1990s that “in the thirties, [Ravenel] was called the Tank Car Town. We used to come down to the tracks to watch for the train. Albert Liggins had this big well and furnished the water for the railroad. It was something to see that train load the water. The train engineer would stick out a big stick to catch the bag of mail. Sometimes he’ d miss, but they just kept on going. Sometimes we boys would hop the train and go to Hollywood. Next time, we’ d go on to Meggett or Yonges Island, past big farms and fields that went on and on. If we weren’t catching a ride, we’ d be walking the tracks because the dirt roads were so bad. We sure had fun.”
In the early twentieth century, the old plantations became truck farms, or smaller holdings that raised and sold cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes, and beans, to local markets and consumers. In 1911, the town of Ravenel, which had just 337 residents, became part of Charleston County. By 1949, the sleepy town had grown just enough to be incorporated, and today it is managed by a mayor and council.
Amenities and Parks
The heart of the town is the circa 1915 ACL Railroad Depot building, which once held the post office and a telegraph station and then was vacant in the 1970s before being restored as the popular community gathering place it is today. The building and adjacent park hosts Christmas fairs, farmers markets, and other fun events.
Ravenel boasts some of the county’s most beautiful parks, including Caw Caw Interpretive Center and Dungannon, which have thousands of unspoiled acres of hiking trails, boardwalks, marshes, bird and alligator habitat, and history. Caw Caw was created by the enslaved population, who painstakingly created complicated infrastructure including reservoirs and embankments to control the waterflow through the swamps and tidal marshes to cultivate rice. Caw Caw remains one of the best places to experience the inland rice plantation landscape. Now owned by Charleston County Parks, the 443-acre site is a place to “journey from the past to the present and heritage to habitat at the Ravenel Caw Caw Interpretive Center. Rich in natural, cultural and historical resources, Caw Caw was once part of several rice plantations and home to enslaved Africans who applied their technology and skills in agriculture to carve the series of rice fields out of cypress swamps.” There are thousands of tea plant sprouts remaining from when the land was owned by American Tea Growing Company (1901-1914) and trails among the cypress trees marked by interpretive signs that tell Caw Caw’s history.
Dungannon Plantation Heritage Preserve along Highway 162 contains 643 acres of forest and swamp managed by South Carolina DNR. The plantation was named for a township in Tyrone, Ireland and later owned by the Sandford family. Its former rice fields are not freshwater preserves that attract local and migratory birds and a stock of fish.
Living in Ravenel
Ellington Elementary School, Schoeder Middle, and Baptist Hill High School in nearby Hollwood are Charleston County School district facilities, while St. Paul’s Country Day School offers private kindergarten through 12th grade classes. Just a few miles from Ravenel is the St. Paul’s branch of the Charleston County Library system, and residents can shop to the south along Highway 17 near Bee’s Ferry Road, where there are gas stations, grocery stores, and other shops. Ravenel has a town hall; Charleston County Service Center which has a sheriff’s station, EMS, and health clinic; antique stores including Farmhouse and Ravenel Treasures; and “mom and pop” groceries like Cordrays’ (founded in 1932) and other local businesses. Hyde Park Farm and Polo Club, a popular events venue on a beautiful rural tract, speaks to the equine heritage that is still strong in Ravenel (there are several beautiful boarding facilities like Ivy Bridge Stable nearby).
Despite a growing population now reaching more than 2,500, Ravenel remains one of the least developed parts of Charleston County, where residents can escape to secluded tree lined lots along country roads. The town explains that residents have “a powerful instinct to protect what is important, to safeguard neighborhoods, to encourage preservation of historic structures, maintain open spaces, and preserve agricultural uses. It is a town where people are good citizens and neighbors and where families are important.” Ravenel is a bedroom community, and most of the lots are large and still secluded, aside from a few more recent small town house enclaves close to Savannah Highway. Most architecture dates 1990s to the present and includes large farmhouse style residences and neotraditional cottages.
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Sources:
Doar, David. Rice and Rice Planting in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Charleston: Charleston Museum, 1936. Reprint, 1970.
Charleston Mercury, 11 January 1827.
BCDCOG, Town of Ravenel. Twenty Year Comprehensive Plan. Adopted May 2020.
Smith, Hayden R. Carolina’s Golden Fields: Inland Rice Cultivation in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670–1860. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
McCrady plats
Charleston County plats
Nicholas Butler. “Ten things everyone should know about Lowcountry rice.” Charleston Time Machine. https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/ten-things-everyone-should-know-about-lowcountry-rice
Matt Richardson. “Nature in its full glory at Dungannon Plantation Heritage Preserve.” Island Packet, 2 June 2014.
https://www.scpictureproject.org/charleston-county/caw-caw-interpretive-center.html
Christina Butler. “St. Paul’s Green Spaces.” https://charlestonempireproperties.com/st-pauls-green-spaces-exploring-southern-charleston-countys-hidden-parks/
https://charlestondaily.net/quirkiness-of-historic-ravenel-just-a-stone-throw-away/
