Hampton Park is, at sixty-seven acres, the largest public park located in peninsular Charleston, South Carolina. It was named in honor of Confederate General and former South Carolina Governor Wade Hampton.
A parkway called Mary Murray Blvd. rings Hampton Park. It is exactly one mile around and is popular with joggers and walkers.
The park is the location of the finale for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival each June.
The land constituting Hampton Park was, by 1769, part of a plantation owned by John Gibbes. The plantation, known as The Grove or as Orange Grove Plantation, was approximately 232 acres and included present day Hampton Park, the Citadel, and land to the north. The plantation, however, was destroyed during the Revolutionary War.[1]
In 1835, part of the plantation was acquired by the South Carolina Jockey Club, a group that developed the Washington Race Course, a horse racing course. An annual horse racing event in February attracted thousands of spectators who could watch the races from an Italianate grandstand designed by Charles F. Reichart.[2] The races were held until 1895 other than during the Civil War. Today, Mary Murray Drive is a one-mile parkway that loops around the perimter of Hampton Park in almost the exact location of the race track.
In 1861, racing at the track was suspended, and race course was used as a prisoner-of-war camp for Union soldiers. Over two-hundred soliders died in the camp and were buried in a mass grave at the site. Almost immediately after the hostilities, the bodies were exhumed and properly reburied by two local benevolent organizations, the Patriotic Association of Colored Men and the Friends of the Martyrs. In late April 1865, an enclosure was erected around the grave sites, a white picket fence on which was written "The Martyrs of the Race Course."[3] On May 1, 1865, as many as 10,000 people, mainly colored residents of Charleston, processed to the site. Members of the Fifty Fourth Massachusetts Regiment marched around the site. The graves were decorated, speeches were offered, and thousands of Charlestonians were part of the festivities.[4] This has been cited as the first Memorial Day celebration. By 1871, the cemetary was suffering neglect, and the soldiers were reinterred at Beaufort and Florence National Cemetaries.
After the Civil War, the economy was poor in Charleston, the the Jockey Club was unable to resume the popular racing season, and the land was leased for farming. Some of the land was apparently used by residents for recreation. In 1886, the Philadelphia Phillies used the site for spring training. [5]
In 1899, the Charleston Jockey Club disbanded, and the club's assets were given to the Charleston Library Society in 1900. The remnants of the racing structures were removed, but August Belmont acquired the gates to the course through a gift from the City of Charleston. The gates are today installed at Belmont and possibly also the Saratoga Tracks in New York. [6]
At the turn of the century, Charleston hosted a regional trade exposition. The South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition of 1901-1902 was held in the northern portion of peninsular Charleston on a tract of approximately 250 acres, including the former race course. The exposition opened on December 1, 1901, and attracted 674,086 attendees during its run. On April 9, 1902, President Teddy Roosevelt attended the exposition. Nevertheless, the trade exposition was a financial failure, and it closed on May 31, 1902.
Thereafter, a part of the land was purchased by the City of Charleston to be developed as a park. The city acquired the Rhett Farm too (the present day location of the Citadel) between the race course and the Ashley River. The park was named in honor of Confederate General Wade Hampton who, since the Civil War, had become governor of South Carolina. The old bandstand from the trade exposition, once located in the center of the park, was saved and moved to its present location at the east edge of the park at the foot of Cleveland St. In addition, the building at 30 Mary Murray Blvd. which is currently used as the city's Parks Department offices was retained from the exposition, where it served as a tea house.
The city retained the services of Olmstead, Olmstead & Elliott, a landscaping firm from Boston and the successor firm to that of Frederick Law Olmstead. John Charles Olmstead, Jr., the stepson of Frederick Law Olmstead, designed a plan for a park. His first visit to Charleston took place in 1906.[7]
No copies of his plan survive, and it is unclear how much of his plan was incorporated into the final park design. At least part of his plans for long parkways running along the Ashley River were disrupted when the city sold the approximately 200 acres along the Ashley River, the Rhett Farm tract, to the Citadel for the relocation and expansion of its campus. 1919 S.C. Acts No. 216 (approval of transfer).
During the mid-20th century, the park included a zoo. The sound of the lion's roar was mentioned by author Pat Conroy in book The Lords of Discipline. It was opened in 1932 as a WPA project, and an aviary was added about six years later. The zoo closed in the late 1960s, and its contents were largely transferred to a new state park at Charlestowne Landing.
When it was opened, Hampton Park was located in the largely undeveloped northern end of the peninsula. The surrounding land was primarily occupied by small truck farms, lumber yards, and clusters of houses. Within only a few years, the presence of Hampton Park and the availabilty of the streetcars which had been run to the site of the exposition led to quick development of the surrounding neighborhoods. Today, Hampton Park is bordered by the Citadel to the west, Hampton Park Terrace to the south, North Central to the east, and Wagoner Terrace to the north.
At one point, the capstan of the U.S.S. Maine was placed in Hampton Park, but it was later relocated to White Point Gardens.
Information for Guides of Historic Charleston, South Carolina 458 (1985). Robert N. Rosen, A Short History of Charleston 134 (19__) (bandstand info).