Bank to help lighthouse

Speaking at a grand opening for James Island's BB&T bank branch last week, Al Hitchcock noted that the banking firm got its start in 1872, the same year construction on the Morris Island lighthouse was begun.

How fitting, Hitchcock noted, that the James Island BB&T branch is now helping to raise funds needed to restore the endangered 158-foot-tall lighthouse.

Hitchcock is chairman of Save the Light Inc., a citizens group raising funds and directing preservation efforts for the lighthouse.

BB&T at 1035 Folly Road gave Save the Light a $500 check at the grand opening and has pledged new funds that could surpass $10,000. BB&T Assistant Vice President Ryan J. Benton said BB&T will donate $100 to Save the Light for every new business investors or investors deposit account opened and $25 for every personal or business checking account opened.

The second phase of the restoration effort to keep the lighthouse standing will begin early next year.

The first phase, a preservation plan, was completed this spring when a 12-foot-high steel cofferdam was erected around the lighthouse base. In phase two, steel pilings will be drilled below the lighthouse to shore up the original 264 old wooden pilings that are being eaten away by ship worms. New pilings and injections of hydraulic concrete under the lighthouse base should stop it from leaning, he said.

The cofferdam is dampening the impact of the surf. "It keeps the wave action from beating the lighthouse to death," said Save the Light board member John Davy.

Once a vital aid to navigation, the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1962. It was built on high ground a quarter-mile from the Atlantic Ocean. More than a century of erosion has left the lighthouse a quarter-mile inside the ocean, and even at low tide its base is surrounded by relentless, swirling waters.

Save the Light bought the lighthouse from a previous owner in 1999 and gave it to the state. Save the Light retains responsibility for planning, engineering, fundraising and preservation, which is expected to cost some $6 million.

The BB&T branch is the firm's first free-standing bank building on James Island. Previously, BB&T operated out of an island grocery store. Benton said the bank has a mission statement calling for it to do more than just business when it comes to a community.

"We had to find something that the community needed and is interested in. Since I live on James Island and have family here, the lighthouse quickly came to mind," Benton said.

BB&T is the only bank inside the town of James Island, Mayor Mary Clark said. She said it's wonderful that BB&T is helping with lighthouse restoration. "The lighthouse has been one of my favorite spots since I came to Folly Beach 66 years ago," she said. "It's a wonderful asset we all enjoy."

Folly Beach Mayor Carl Beckmann Jr. said that losing the lighthouse would mean losing a well-known symbol of the Lowcountry.

"Any time you are looking at any pictures of Charleston, you are going to see a picture of the Morris Island lighthouse. Every time," Beckmann said.

An Abbeville native who came to James Island 28 years ago, Hitchcock said he can see the lighthouse from his backyard. "That's the first thing I do every morning, to make sure it's still standing," he said.

Hitchcock, who is also president of C.R. Hipp Construction Co., said the lighthouse is an amazing structure. "It was built by men who had to go up a scaffold and had to carry every brick," he added.

BB&T Corp., headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., holds $137 billion in assets and has the third-largest banking share in South Carolina. Its bank subsidiaries operate about 1,500 branches in the South, Indiana and Washington, D.C.

To contact the bank, call 406-6650 or see www.BBT.com. For information about the lighthouse, see www.savethelight.org.

Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 937-5560.