Isle of Palms Spring 2016

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In the Oval Office: President Ronald Reagan, far right, with, counterclockwise: U.S. Reps. Tommy Hartnett and Floyd Spence; David Stockman,
director of the Office of Management and Budget; Lyn Nofziger, assistant to the president for political affairs; U.S. Reps. Trent Lott and
Carroll Campbell; and Vice President George Bush.
You can hardly talk about
former U.S. Rep. Tommy Hartnett
without talking about the Isle of
Palms. It’s not just the place he has
ended up – it’s the place where he
started. From childhood summers
spent on the beach to his first job to
the first date with his future spouse, the Isle of Palms has
played a supporting role not only in Hartnett’s back story
but in who he is and what he has accomplished.
Hartnett’s story is a fascinating tale of politics and
family in the Lowcountry, highlighted by his six years in
the U.S. House of Representatives as the first Republican
elected from South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District
since Reconstruction.
The early Days
The foundation of today’s Isle of Palms was laid in late
1944, when real estate developer J.C. Long purchased
more than 1,000 acres of land and began building roads
and houses, putting into motion IOP’s transformation
from a small summer resort community to a permanent
home for thousands of year-round residents. Hartnett
was introduced early on to the island that would become
such an important part of his life.
“J.C. Long’s wife was my daddy’s first cousin. We
called her Aunt Alberta,” Hartnett recalled. “They would
give us a house on the Isle of Palms for two or three
weeks every summer. My daddy being handicapped, J.C.
always felt it was good for him to come out and get some
island air. We would stay near their house when there
were hardly any houses out there. The farthest the island
went at the time was 21st Avenue. There was a public
picnic ground there where you could go out and picnic,
but there was nobody on the island then.”
Year after year, the family would return to the island
where Hartnett and his sisters spent their days play-
ing on the beach and their evenings watching fireflies.
The amusement park on the island, with a carousel and
swings, was open year-round, and there was bingo, too,
but the Isle of Palms was still a strictly local retreat.
“It was very quiet – all local people. It was not any
place where people came from afar to vacation with their
families because there weren’t any big houses here and no
Photo provided by Tommy Hartnett.