The Battery is set to get a facelift

[krazeeboi]

Mayor Joe Riley has formed a team to figure out the best way to give the Battery, also known as White Point Garden, a $1 million+ facelift. The Battery is rich in history, but virtually none of it is reflected at the site (the cannons don't count). The team will look at what kinds of monuments might be added to better explain the history of White Point Garden, and it also will examine whether some of the park's existing monuments might find a more appropriate home somewhere else. And before any construction begins, archaeologists will get a chance to explore the area, which is believed to contain the graves of several pirates executed there before the Revolutionary War.

Other issues include making the park more accessible to wheelchairs and strollers, particularly on the easternmost end, and reworking the oyster shell paths to improve drainage. Improvements to lighting, benches and curbs also may be in the works.

[Charleston native]

I remember reading a brief about this project in the Chas Business Journal. This is very good news. First and foremost, the lighting in the park has been a problem with several dark spots. Sometimes, gangs and rowdy youth meet up there with their cars or motorcycles. It was considered the most romantic spot in the city until Waterfront Park was built with better lighting...it was considered safer than White Point. I am hoping that extra light posts will be added and the improvements will make more residents and tourists use it at night.

[digital_sandlapper]

Wonderful news! White Point Gardens could definitely benefit from a facelift.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to include the walkway/promenade, road, and median that most of us think of as "The Battery". That is the part that is most in need of refurbishment, IMO. The seawall holding the water back, the rails, the beautiful slate pavement, the plantings of oleander and palmetto--those are all in serious neglect. The traffic congestion during the day (and at night), as well as the late night/all night loitering have also been bad for years. It is becoming an increasingly tacky part of our otherwise regal city.

[monsoon]

I never knew the battery was also known as White Point Gardens. That is quite interesting. I think it would be a good idea to give people more of a history of the place.

I also think it would be a good idea to shut down traffic through the battery and only let pedestrians, bikers, the horse carriages, and maybe some bus traffic through there.

[krazeeboi]

It will be interesting to see what potential archaeological digs will uncover.

I, too, was unaware that the Battery also went by "White Point Garden." I've always known it as just "the Battery."

[Spartan]

It will be interesting to see what potential archaeological digs will uncover.

I, too, was unaware that the Battery also went by "White Point Garden." I've always known it as just "the Battery."

[cofcsam]

The name White Point Garden came from the appearance of the beach from the Harbor before the seawall was constructed. Before the Garden name was adopted, the area was known as Oyster Point. The look of the bleached oyster shells on the beach is the bit of nostalgia that I assume White Point Garden is supposed to hearken back to.

The area has seen remarkable use and reuse as innumerable fortifications were built on the site and the surrounding residences withstood the direct barrage of artillery throughout the centuries.

It would be nice to see a park that wasn't a hodgepodge of memorials and plaques like Marion Square has become. Veterans have a strong influence on the placement of those items, and deservedly so. Over time, though, they all blend together and each new monument brings little new significance with it; and before you know it youll feel like youre on the Statehouse Grounds!