The Flowertown Festival, Summerville
The Southeast Tourism Society has named the Flowertown Festival in Summerville, SC as one of 
the Top 20 Events in the Southeast. The annual Summerville Family YMCA Flowertown Festival, a 3 day event celebrated every spring since 1972, celebrates the ushering in of warm weather and the passing of the cold.
Held in Azalea Park (map/directions) The festival is the largest in South Carolina and features food vendors, a tour of local historic homes and gardens, arts & crafts, live entertainment, a tennis classic and even a children's carnival complete with events plus art & crafts for the youg ones.
The 2009 Flowertown Festival will run from April 3, 2009 to April 5, 2009 from 9am to 5pm on Friday and Saturday, and 9am to 4pm on Sunday.
Admission to the festival is FREE, it is a family event, no alchohol is served and no pets are allowed. For more information call the Summerville family YMCA at (843) 871-9622.
The Times of Our Lives: Celebrating the Azalea
By Barbara Millen
Although Summerville’s earliest settlers date as far back as the late 1600s, the town’s golden era must surely be the first part of the 20th century. It had long been a refuge for coastal residents who fled the punishing heat and relentless mosquitoes
for which the Lowcountry is known but it was about to become world famous. In 1899, the International Congress of Physicians proclaimed Summerville one of the two best places in the world for people suffering from lung disorders. The turpentine scent emitted by the pine trees was considered
to be the cure for a variety of respiratory ailments. A long time resident remembers it well.
"It was so popular," Helen Tovey says. "It was world famous because of the pine air. People even came from Europe. It was prescribed by doctors."
Suddenly the town of Summerville became a destination not only for those seeking to breathe in the healing atmosphere but for travelers wishing to experience the famed southern beauty of the "flower town in the pines." The town boomed as hotels and inns were built to accommodate the many visitors. And, as so often happens, more than a few decided to stay.
Helen Anderson Waring Tovey was just five years old when she moved to Summerville in 1926. It was the middle of the Roaring 20s – "they were wild," she recalls – and life was good. Just a few years later, the Great Depression hit and times were tough.
"But we all pulled together," Helen says with a smile. "We got through that terrible Depression." By 1934, a 13-year-old Helen was attending Summerville High School and football was just as exciting then as it is now. She recalls that the "green wave" became the team nickname during the mid-1930s. Prosperity began to return and her father, who was a bookkeeper for the local lumber company, opened an office on Main Street. In 1937, the Anderson family built a home in Summerville.
Residents of the tightly knit community socialized often and one favorite dance spot was the Pine Forest Inn where people gathered to cut the rug. Built in 1891, the Pine Forest Inn was possibly the most opulent resort in town. The building held a large central rotunda with two side wings set around a courtyard. Two piazzas allowed revelers to step outside for a breath of fresh air under the pines. Up to 250 people could be seated in the main dining room and there were many smaller gathering spots, including the Rocking Chair Room which boasted more than 100 rockers. Famous visitors during the early 1900s included Presidents – both Roosevelts and Taft – as well as Elizabeth Arden, Efrem Zimbalist Sr. and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
The Pine Forest Inn was the ultimate in resorts, offering the most modern guest rooms, impeccable
service and unequaled amenities. These ranged from games such as tennis, croquet and bowling to tea parties and tours of the on-site Pinehurst Tea Garden. The 18-hole golf course was the second one built in South Carolina. More adventurous guests took advantage of hunting parties during the season and the Pine Forest Inn provided hounds and horses for those who did not bring their own. The Pine Forest Inn flourished throughout the Jazz Age and into the late 1930s.
Spring seems to burst into the Lowcountry, especially in classic Southern towns such as Summerville, starting with the demure beauty of camellias which often arrive with the last frost of winter. The azaleas burst into bloom in colors ranging from purest white to a deep fuchsia and are followed by the large, fragrant blooms of magnolia trees. No wonder Summerville celebrates its most flamboyant season with a festival.
The current Flowertown Festival dates back to 1972 when Jean Gantt built the annual event on the foundation of a Young Women’s Christian Organization (YWCO) fund-raiser. But decades earlier, in 1941, the town of Summerville celebrated the first Azalea Festival, a four-day event that included dances, concerts, a parade and a formal ball.
Helen Anderson came of age during the early years of World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor had not yet occurred and life was exciting and wonderful as she planned her outfits for the various activities of the Flower Festival. She danced her way through a sock hop at the high school gym and square-danced with the fellas before donning a white formal dress shot through with silver thread for the grand ball on Saturday night. The soundtrack for the events included the big band sounds of Glenn Miller and Harry James and, on a side trip to Stoney Field in Charleston, Helen and her friends were entertained by Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra. There was a new singer, too, who was attracting interest – Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra.
"It was shoulder to shoulder," Helen says about seeing Tommy Dorsey. "You could hardly dance." Remembering the Azalea Festival Ball, Helen says it was all about having fun with friends. The Roaring ‘20s might have been wild, she explains, but post-depression life was more subdued. There wasn’t a lot of money but girls were rich in friends and there was a lot of dancing.
"In the South, they did have the belles of the ball," Helen remembers, adding that all the colleges and fraternities held dances.
Today, Summerville is known for its annual Flowertown Festival, which draws thousands of visitors each spring to enjoy the mass of beautiful flowers that are sheltered by those famous pine trees.
Summerville, South Carolina - The Original Summer Resort Town
Cool breezes whispering through forests of pine were what brought Summerville its first visitors. Lowcountry 
residents found in the town’s lofty location a respite from the
subtropical heat and disease of the summer. They believed that harmful
gases rose up from the low-lying rice fields and swamps along the
coast and caused malaria. What they didn’t know then was that
the mosquitoes were causing the malaria. What they did know, though,
was that they felt better in this village among the pines.
Those healthy breezes were enjoyed in what were known as "mosquito houses," non-insulated structures designed to allow air to flow freely throughout. They consisted of two rooms on each side of a wide hall, and a fireplace in each room. By 1828, twenty-eight families had built summer cottages, and Summerville was born.
"A reconstructed Azalea Park was unveiled as the town’s Bicentennial Celebration Project, and today, is the centerpiece of the Flowertown Festival"
It didn’t take long for this quaint village retreat to become popular. By 1830 the South Carolina Railroad came through Summerville and a new town plan was laid out with streets parallel and perpendicular to the tracks for easy travel access. The "new town," as it was called, was just east of the original settlement of Old Summerville and Mayor Edward L. Hutchinson became its first mayor.
Large tracts of pineland that had been purchased by the railroad to fuel its locomotives were later divided into parcels for residential use, and sold with a covenant to protectnot less than 15 pine trees per parcel. Specifications on size and circumference were included with the purchase. It would be forever and a day before the residents would lose the precious trees that provided their healthful air.
By 1847 the town was incorporated to include both the old and the new settlements and was called the Village of Summerville. The ordinance to protect the trees was tightened up through the years and is said to be the oldest tree ordinance in South Carolina. Those early efforts at preservation have earned Summerville the title of Tree City USA from the USDA Forest Service.
The War Between the States slowed growth in Summerville, but fortunately the area was less physically damaged than other towns, causing summer vacationers to move in permanently, rather than return to their damaged plantations.
In the late 1880’s, a congress of physicians met in Paris and touted Summerville as one of the most healthful places in the world for patients with lung disease. The supposed therapeutic value of the pines and the mild climate were once again driving up the popularity of Summerville.
A typical 19th century advertisement would read: "Charleston’s Suburban Resort ‘Among the Pines.’ Summerville, South Carolina – The Unsurpassed Health Resort and Winter Home, The Greatest Sanitarium in the World." Recovering patients, traveling doctors, and vacationers flocked to Summerville, for it had become the world’s most popular health retreat.
Inns and hotels with fanciful names like The Wisteria, Carolina,
Halcyon, White Gables and Squirrel sprouted up to accommodate the
renewed influx of visitors. Today, Summerville is home to the Five
Star Woodlands Inn and Resort.
Summerville was in its heyday, with the rich and famous coming from far and wide to enjoy the music, theater—everything the village had to offer. In 1886, an earthquake rocked homes from their foundations, and seven years later a severe hurricane robbed Summerville of more than 1,000 pine trees. Though real estate sales were steady, the Great Depression brought the Golden Age to a close.
It was the foresight of Mayor Grange Cuthbert that resulted in the creation of the now-famous Azalea Park. He proposed that the land bordering the Summerville drainage canals be used for a park, put together grants to fund the project, and created jobs for unemployed residents constructing it.
The town survived yet another hurricane, and later, a damaging ice storm, and by the 1970’s, its economy had rebounded. A reconstructed Azalea Park was unveiled as the town’s Bicentennial Celebration Project, and today, is the centerpiece of the Flowertown Festival.
Summerville’s first town hall stood at the head of Hutchinson
Park 
from 1893 to 1963. The venerable old building served the town
well, with offices for the draft board, stamp rationing, and a Natural
History Museum all under one roof. The top floor was used as a dance
hall and theater where bands and local dramatic productions were
often held. The current building was opened in 1965, and is the
third building to house the municipal government.
The bell tower atop the building has a history all its own. During the war, silhouettes of enemy planes were posted in the tower and town youths took turns trying to site unknown aircraft. Some were actually reported to the air base.
The young ladies of the time used the bell tower as a look out of sorts, too. They would climb to the top and look over the hundreds of military men who frequently visited. From this vantage point, a "belle" could toss a note folded around a pebble containing her name and the date of the local American Legion dance. Hopefully, the missive would find its mark, and the young man would seek her out at the next dance. Many a romance was sparked from that bell tower.
Summerville is a celebration of heritage and natural beauty. Quintessentially Southern and quaint, its residents, like those who came before them, appreciate those values in a town, and live by the motto, "The Pine is Sacred."
