Byrnes Downs dates to the 1940s and was one of several West Ashley subdivisions created to relieve WWII-era housing shortages. It was built by Long Construction Co. on farmland bisected by the Atlantic Coast Line R.R., now the West Ashley Greenway. Construction began in 1944 and the first home was sold in 1945. Children attended Albemarle and St. Andrew’s Schools. The nearly 90-acre neighborhood is bounded roughly by Coburg Road, Colleton Drive, Campbell Drive, and US. 17. Byrnes Downs was named for prominent S.C politician James F. Byrnes, a native of Charleston and friend of the Long family. It was first developed by V-Housing Corporation to house white defense workers. By the 1950s it included about 370 homes, each based on one of five design models, as well as commercial properties along U.S. 17. The Byrnes Downs Garden Club organized in 1948 and soon after planted more than 100 oak trees, many still found on neighborhood streets.

Historical Marker for Byrnes Downs, sponsored by Byrnes Downs Neighborhood Group and Preservation Society of Charleston, 2025.

To be installed in early 2026.

The charm of Byrnes Downs was cast in the first brick, sealed with mortar, decorated with trees and gardens, and nurtured by the people who lived, loved, raised families, and passed away in these brick bungalows called home. Blanton, Cacioppo, Caldwell, Carroll, Corvette, Hartnett, Harvey, Melfi, Strobel, Steenken, Thorne, Wilson, and Webb are just a few of the names of families who began their lives together in these 850 sq ft cottages in the mid 1940s. They laid the groundwork for a neighborhood that in the 21st century retains all the charm and magic placed in that very first brick. 

As the story goes, once upon a time there was a cabbage patch until the V-housing Corporation decided to purchase the farmland and develop a neighborhood in order to fill a housing shortage. The Charleston Navy Yard was teeming with workers, young soldiers were coming home to families, World War II was ending and many people wanted to begin their life in their own home in a new community. Byrnes Downs was one such community being developed by the V-housing Corporation in St Andrew’s Parish.

-Excerpt from Byrnes Downs by Donna Jacobs, published Images of America, Arcadia Publishing, Inc