Isle of Palms Magazine Winter-Spring 2017-18

8 www.IsleOfPalmsMagazine.com | www.ILoveIOP.com | www.IOPmag.com [ Feature ] O nce upon a time it was Hunter Island. Then its name changed to Long Island. In the early 1900s, it earned the nickname “the Coney Island of the South.” Today, you know this 5.4- square-mile barrier island as Isle of Palms. Home to just over 4,000 souls, according to the most recent census, Isle of Palms boasts a popular beach, numerous restaurants and shops, an elegant resort with two golf courses and is a premier summer destination for locals and vacationers alike. But why “the Coney Island of the South?” This story begins in 1897, when Nicholas Sottile – progenitor of the well-known and highly regarded Lowcountry Sottile family – built the first home on the island as a summer getaway. He and his family had to hire a rowboat to get them there. One year later, an entrepreneurially minded gentleman named Dr. Joseph S. Lawrence dubbed it Isle of Palms, in part due to its proliferation of sabal palms but primarily because he felt the name would be likely to attract tourists. Dr. Lawrence also promoted and later served as president of a company that built more than seven miles of track and trestle for horse-drawn then electric trolley cars to carry visitors from a boat landing in Mount Pleasant all the way An Story The Coney Island of the South By Bill Farley Photos courtesy of Mike Sottile Amusing