The development of the Isle of Palms was a cherished dream of Charleston Mayor John P. Grace. Almost single-handedly in the late 1920s, he persuaded Chicago investors that South Carolina could compete successfully with Florida for a booming winter tourist business. He engineered the creation of the Cooper River Bridge Company (of which he was president) to provide access to the island, and promoted tourism. But 1929 did not turn out to be a good year to start such an enterprise, and it was not until the 1960s that the Isle of Palms emerged as an exclusive resort, popular with beach-goers of all ages.
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
