Jewel on the harbor
James Island park, owned by Charleston, a place to fish, picnic, relax and take in sweeping views
The Post and Courier
Matt Compton, deputy director of Charleston parks, takes a walk on the pier added to Demetre Park earlier this year. The pier offers a spectacular view of Charleston and its harbor. Compton also said it is a great spot for fishing.
The Post and Courier
Lance Crowe (left) and Frances Fuller, both of James Island, search one of two small beaches at Demetre Park for shellfish, sharks' teeth and other goodies to take to the hermit crab tank at home. Adding to the view at the park this day was an anchored sailing vessel.
Carol Curtis of James Island relaxes on one of the two small beaches at Demetre Park.
With a view of the Charleston skyline behind them, Sarah Goldman (left) of James Island and Gregg Swanson of Mount Pleasant ride bikes at Demetre Park. The park is a 'great spot' to visit while on lunch break from work, the women said.
Damien Watson of West Ashley enjoys fishing two or three times each week from the new pier extending into Charleston Harbor from Demetre Park, formerly called Sunrise Park. During weekdays, Watson said, the pier is a quiet place to be. 'It can be crowded on the weekends,' he added.
The tooth was among shellfish and shells scattered along one of the two small beaches at the park, formerly called Sunrise Park.
Helen and Eugene McConnell, who live on James Island and just a few miles from Demetre Park, enjoy the park and its small but shady covered picnic area often. 'It's a nice, quiet little place,' Helen said.
A lot of beauty is packed into tiny Milton P. Demetre Park on James Island. The 2.5-acre site, off Wampler Drive and formerly called Sunrise Park, has a fishing pier, two small sandy riverfront beaches, marshes, a covered picnic area, small pond, field of green grass and the beginnings of a hiking trail.
The 190-foot fishing pier extending into the harbor is new, having opened in February and proving to be popular. And the park over the next year or so is slated to get even better with new amenities coming as part of Phase 2 of development.
But it's not what's in Demetre Park that may take your breath away: It's the view from the park.
The small projection of land into Charleston Harbor provides stunning vistas of the city's skyline, Patriots Point and the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. The panorama that can be taken in from the park sweeps all the way from West Ashley to Sullivan's Island and includes Fort Sumter, distant lighthouses, the Fort Johnson Marine Research Center and more.
Top it off with colorful sailboats and other pleasure and commercial vessels passing by and that's a park that's hard to top. "You can't beat the view down here. It's gorgeous," Matt Compton, deputy director of parks for the city of Charleston, said while strolling the new pier.
The pier leads to a 20-by-20-foot pier head and 40-foot floating dock. Other lesser projects include steps leading to the beach areas and an automatic gate that opens the parking area 6 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.
"If you get stuck behind the gate, you (will have to) wait until the next day to leave," Compton noted.
Those projects were built with $450,000 approved by Charleston City Council for the only city-owned waterfront park on James Island.
Compton said Phase 2 will include a fishing and crabbing pier into the pond, which rises and falls with the tide, is surrounded by trees and other vegetation and often has a mirrorlike surface reflecting the surroundings.
The pond "has a completely different ecosystem from what you have on the harbor side" of the park, he said.
Also planned for Phase 2 are a small restroom facility; bollards made up of posts and chain or rope to prevent falls at some of the steep declines, where the grassy area gives way to river and marsh; and landscaping that incorporates vegetation natural to the area and will be placed so as not to hinder the views. The city intends to keep the park passive, Compton said.
Charleston City Councilwoman Kathleen Wilson said $200,000 has been appropriated for Phase 2. She said the city and police department are keeping Eastwood neighborhood residents informed of park plans and of efforts to ease concerns about traffic and use of the park by "bad actors."
Compton said he's received a lot of positive feedback about the new pier. "Sometimes it's so popular it's hard to get a spot to fish from," he said.
Damien Watson, a West Ashley resident who said he frequents the pier "two or three times a week," attested to that. He said that on a recent weekday, he was the lone fisherman on the pier, but it's crowded on weekends. Watson says he usually leaves with a bunch of whiting.
What the city has done at the park is getting approval from the man for whom the site is named. Charleston jeweler Milton P. Demetre said recently that he's proud to see the project he initiated decades ago getting the attention it deserves. He originally wanted to convert the tract to a marina. But problems mounted for him, including getting necessary permits.
"I worked on it for 20 years," he said. "It was back-breaking labor, just one man with a truck, a pick and a shovel."
Demetre sold the property to Charleston about 15 years ago for $500,000. The deed transfer included stipulations that the city build a pier, name the park for him and erect a monument explaining how the park got its name.
"Why would you name it after anyone but the guy who deeded the land and who built it?" Demetre said from his King Street shop.
When the stipulations were not done by the contractual deadline, Demetre sued the city in 2000. The lawsuit was settled in 2007 with a consent order for the city to complete the pier and other park amenities by certain deadlines.
Though Demetre thinks the park is what it is only through a long, tough battle, "it ended up really well."
Reach Edwa
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