Community hopes to restore lodge to former glory

Built almost a century ago, this former pillar of the community shows the effects of advanced age combined with little or no regular care.

But plans are unfolding to restore the Seashore Farmers Lodge No. 767 building on Sol Legare Road. Lodge members, the town of James Island, individuals and businesses are combining efforts and funds to bring back the historic wooden structure. James Island Town Council has budgeted $50,000 but was unable to secure a $95,000 restoration grant, Councilman Bill "Cubby" Wilder said.

He said the restored building could become a museum for Civil War relics found in the Sol Legare area and for antique farm and fishing implements once used in the community.

In 2007, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its African-American post-Civil War historical significance.

"That building was just about everything in the community," Wilder said.

It was built more than 80 years ago on a site where the 54th Massachusetts Regiment engaged in combat with Confederate forces in 1863. In the early part of the 20th century, the lodge organization was vital to Sea Island blacks who could expect no outside help.

Wilder said the community organization, which predates the building by about 15 years, served farmers and fishermen, and the building hosted holiday celebrations, picnics, rallies, educational sessions, dances and even wakes. It also once served as a movie theater.

"It was the hub of African-American culture at a time when blacks could not get loans from banks. The lodge provided everything from burials to getting seeds farmers needed to plant their crops," he said.

The structure has not been used for about 20 years. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo damaged it, and Hurricane Floyd, 10 years later, "put it in the condition it is now," Wilder said.

The building is one of the last of its kind remaining in the South, said Corie Hipp, hospitality coordinator for Trademark Properties, a real estate firm. Trademark is heading a fundraising drive and making plans to restore the 20-by-40-foot, two-story structure.

The restoration will be filmed for Trademark's "The Real Deal" reality television show to air in April on the TLC network.

"We'd like to renovate it as much a possible to the way it looked in its heyday and take away the ugliness of the way it looks now," lodge member Ernest Parks said.

Current Lodge President Ed Wilder Jr., a distant relative of Cubby Wilder, recalled many of the events the building hosted. Labor Day and Fourth of July were big days, he said. "Kids would come in and eat ice cream and play games," he said.

Ed Wilder has the National Register plaque that normally would be attached to the building. But with rows of wooden exterior "crutches" now holding up walls, gaping holes in the tin roof, and missing or decayed and fragile remains of boards, the building doesn't look strong enough to hold any added weight.

Ed Wilder said restoration will cost up to $300,000. With the funds obtained so far, efforts will begin next month to stabilize the building and strengthen its foundation. The building has a wooden floor but no concrete or bricks beneath. Plans are to lift the building and put down a firmer base, he said.

He said the lodge not only served as a social and professional fraternity, but also counseled and cared for members and their families in times of illness and death and provided members with a form of crop insurance.

Should a farmer's crop fail or be lost to disaster, the lodge provided seeds to plant again, Ed Wilder said.

The lodge had 150 members scores of years ago. Today, membership ranges from 50 to 70, said Wilder, a lodge member for 40 years. The old building remains under lodge ownership, but meetings are held at the nearby Sol Legare Community Center.

"We were just trying to keep our membership together. We didn't collect a whole lot of money and fell behind trying to maintain it," he said in explaining the inability to keep up with repairs.

Parks, whose uncle John Wilder (Ed Wilder's uncle) was given a wake in the building in the mid-1950s, said the black 54th Massachusetts Regiment fought along the old Sol Legare Road two days before the unit's famous assault on Battery Wagner on nearby Morris Island.

An environmental health manager for the S.C. Department of Transportation, Parks is a history enthusiast and Civil War re-enactor. Sol Legare residents for many years have been uncovering Civil War relics that Parks said should be displayed at the restored lodge.

But looking at the old lodge today, Parks knows something must be done soon before what remains of the building is lost.

"We are trying to make it a reality before it blows down," he said, noting the old structure probably would not endure another hurricane.

Hipp said the time will come when volunteers will be asked to come out and lend a hand or wield a paintbrush at the restoration site. To make a donation or volunteer, contact Concerned Citizens of Sol Legare, c/o Trademark Properties, Corie Hipp, 1175-C Folly Road, Charleston, SC 29412.

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