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HOA Management in Hanahan, SC

The City of Hanahan, South Carolina, is located within the lower part of Berkeley County. Hanahan is mostly a bedroom community for Charleston and Berkeley counties’ businesses and industries. Hanahan has a total area of 10.69 square miles per the 2010 U.S. Census. Hanahan is located in the Coastal Plain Region of the state, and this region is commonly referred to as the “Low Country.” Hanahan’s city limits border the City of North Charleston on the west and south. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the Hanahan population was 17,997. The U.S. Census-estimated population for Hanahan as of 2019 was 26,917.  

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Coordinates per Google Earth – Latitude: 32°55′50.08″N, Longitude: 80°00′46.46″ W

Elevation above sea level per Google Earth: 23 feet

The zip code for Goose Creek is 29410

Telephone area codes for Hanahan are 843 and 854

Hanahan is around 14 miles from the Historic District of Charleston. Hanahan is around 19 miles from Summerville. Hanahan is approximately 19 miles to James Island. Hanahan is around 15 miles from Mt. Pleasant. The state capital, Columbia, is 107 miles from Hanahan. 

The City of Hanahan is in the Charleston-North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area. A Metropolitan Statistical Area or MSA is an urban area with a population of 50,000 or more, established by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB). A Metropolitan Statistical Area must have at least one urbanized area. The purpose of establishing Metropolitan Statistical Areas is to group areas, typically counties and cities, into defined geographic areas to calculate population and to compile statistical data related to that population. Three counties comprise the Charleston-North Charleston–Summerville MSA, Dorchester, Charleston, and Berkeley counties. 

Hanahan is only a short drive to many of the historical destinations and beaches around the Charleston area. Hanahan is convenient to the Boeing assembly plant in North Charleston and Volvo’s American factory in Ridgeville. Berkeley County is considered one of South Carolina’s main industrial centers. Major employers in the Hanahan area are Bayer Corporation, Alumax, and Georgia-Pacific Corporation.

The Charleston-North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area population was 664,607 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The population of the Charleston-North Charleston–Summerville MSA for the 2020 U.S. Census was 799,636. Based on population, Charleston-North Charleston–Summerville MSA is the 74th largest in the United States. Within South Carolina, the Charleston-North Charleston–Summerville MSA is third in size. The Greenville Metropolitan Statistical Area is the largest, and the Columbia Metropolitan Statistical Area being the second largest.

About the City of Hanahan

Hanahan was incorporated in 1973; however, the history of the area goes back to the 1700s for European settlers. For most of the 1700s and 1800s, the area that would become Hanahan was either undeveloped or in use for agriculture. Cultivating rice, because of the abundance of water, was the primary crop of the area.      

The historic Otranto Plantation house is located in Hanahan. The earliest known date of existence of the plantation is 1678. The present structure is a one-and-a-half-story, rectangular gable-roofed stucco brick dwelling wrapped on three sides by a porch. A small frame house for the plantation servants is located on the property. The plantation house was destroyed by fire in 1934. However, the house went through a detailed restoration utilizing pre-fire photographs. In 1978, the plantation and servant houses were listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The origin of the plantation began with Arthur and Edward Middleton when they acquired 1,780 acres in the 1670s. The Middleton’s originally called the plantation Yeshoe or Yeowee, which is believed to mean in the area Native American language, “green water.” In 1680, Arthur Middleton acquired Edward’s share in the property. A house was recorded on the plantation property in 1682, and it is believed that Arthur constructed this house after he possessed sole ownership of the plantation.

The most noteworthy owner of Otranto Plantation was Dr. Alexander Garden. Dr. Garden purchased the plantation in 1771. He was a Scottish-born medical doctor who had a practice in Charleston. He is credited with being the first to introduce a smallpox vaccine in Charleston. A famous botanist, Dr. Garden, was friends with botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician Carolus Linnaeus. Linnaeus and John Ellis named the Gardenia flower in honor of Dr. Garden. 

During the American Revolution (1765 – 1783), Dr. Garden remained loyal to the British Crown. Dr. Garden placed the plantation in trust for his wife and son in 1778. It is assumed, Dr. Garden placed his plantation in trust for his wife and son to prevent it from being confiscated by the Patriots. In 1782 his property, 98 Broad Street in Charleston, was confiscated.  

Dr. Garden’s son, Major Alexander Garden, was a Patriot and was aide-de-camp to Continental Army General Nathaniel Green, who commanded all Patriot forces in the south. Before being Green’s aide-de-camp, he served under Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee in Lee’s Legion. In 1783, Dr. Garden and his wife fled to England as many loyalists were compelled to do at the conclusion of the American Revolution. Dr. Garden died of tuberculosis in 1791. He reportedly never returned to the United States or ever spoke to his son again. 

His son, Alexander, returned to live on the plantation after the Revolutionary War. In 1785, Alexander sold a portion of the plantation property. The deed to transfer the property refers to the plantation, for the first time, as Otranto. This name was probably derived from what is considered the first gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, published in 1764.

Around the 1790s, it is believed that Alexander Garden constructed the present plantation house that is still in existence today. This construction time frame is surmised because of the interior Federal-style (c. 1780 – 1815) architectural design.  

The primary crop at the Otranto plantation appears to have been indigo. Indigo is a flowering plant that produces purple or pink buds. These buds are used to make blue dyes. While rice cultivation was a major crop in the area, indigo cultivation needs a great deal of water, as does rice. The only difference is that the indigo needs to be in sandy soil that drains much faster than rice. 

The Otranto Plantation house is located at 18 Basilica Avenue in Hanahan. The present-day Otranto Subdivision is located on the original plantation property. For the most part, the subdivision homes were built in the 1970s, and it is an attractive neighborhood today.

Before Hanahan was Hanahan, it was known as Saxon, or at least a railroad stop was known as Saxon. Around 1891, train schedules for the Northeastern Railroad began showing the name Saxon as a stop on their railroad schedules between Eight-Mile Station and the Porcher stop. 

By the 1890s, the Northeastern Railroad was an old established railroad chartered by the South Carolina Legislature in 1851. The railroad was operational by 1857 from Florence, South Carolina, to Charleston, totaling 102 miles of rail line. At the time rail line’s route was laid through rural and sporadically populated areas. 

As in most all cities and towns that railroads reached in the 1800s, it had dramatic effects on population growth and the growth of commerce. An interesting aspect of railroads in the 1800s is how many were never profitable. As a result, these railroads went bankrupt or merged with other railroads. Another interesting aspect about railroads during this time period was their attempts to become profitable by adding stops where they thought they could pick up additional passengers or freight. In this quest of adding stops, it was common for the railroad to name the stop and that stop’s name to become the name of the settlement that evolved around the train stop. While the origin of the Saxon name is not certain, that seems to be the best hypothesis.

There was no post office in Saxon when in 1917, the United States Post Office Department notified Saxon that the “Saxon” name was already in use in South Carolina. There is a small settlement named Saxon in Spartanburg County.

The Hanahan name comes from James Ross Hanahan (1869 – 1963). J. Ross Hanahan was a successful businessman, founder, and president of Planters Fertilizer and Phosphate Co of Charleston. There was a Public Service District (PSD) that provided fresh water to residents and businesses of the Saxon area. J. Ross Hanahan was the driving force in convincing Charleston County to purchase and operate the Saxon waterworks system. An access issue to the water plant arose when Charleston County refused to pave the road. Berkeley County refused to pave the road because the road was located in Charleston County. Through J. Ross Hanahan’s leadership as chairman of the PSD, he accomplished having the road paved.  In recognition of these accomplishments, the settlement was named after him.

The United States military began playing a role in Hanahan’s population growth and economic development around the turn of the 20th century. The first was the U.S. Navy establishing a base in 1902 with portions in Hanahan. Today, parts of Joint Base Charleston are within Hanahan. 

The Town of Hanahan became incorporated on September 18, 1973, by a close vote of the residents. With 1093 votes in favor and 903 votes opposed to incorporation. This incorporation made Hanahan one of South Carolina’s 20 largest cities. The incentive in the 1970s to incorporate typically revolved around Federal funds that were provided to municipalities to do public works.

Hanahan’s population growth has increased steadily since the first U.S. Census in 1980. Being a bedroom community for the area has pushed this drastically in recent years. In forty years, the populations have doubled from 13,224 in the 1980 U.S. Census to an estimated 26,917 in 2019 per the U.S. Census. 

U.S. Census Historical population

Census Pop. %±

1980 13,224 —

1990 13,176 −0.4%

2000 12,937 −1.8%

2010 17,997 39.1%

2019 26,917 (est.) 49.6%

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