Ashley River Road	Ashley River Road

The Ashley River Road, located along the south side of the Ashley River in Charleston and Dorchester Counties, has been in existence as a major transportation route since at least 1691. The road, which today follows essentially the same route found on the Lodge-Cook Map (1771), is highly significant in the history of the development of the state and the history of transportation in South Carolina as perhaps the oldest road in the state still in use. The road also provides a natural canopy from ancient, moss-laden oak trees, creating a landscape that is both picturesque and historic. During the latter years of the American Revolution, the Ashley River Road was utilized for troop movement and was the site of extended encampments by General Nathanael Greene. Greene stationed his troops first at the crossroads that corresponds to the intersection of South Carolina highways 61 and 165, and then at Ashley Hill Plantation near the present Dorchester-Charleston County line. By the early 1800s, some of South Carolina’s most prominent families including the Draytons, Middletons and Bulls, lived along Ashley River Road, and though most of the plantation houses along the road were burned in 1865, several of the sites that remain are now National Historic Landmarks. The Ashley River Road was labeled as such on Mills Atlas (1820), the earliest documented use of that name. The road, like the Ashley River itself, was named for Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper (Lord Ashley), one of the eight Lord’s Proprietors originally granted a charter to the Carolina colony. Listed in the National Register November 22, 1983.

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