Early Aiken History

The city of Aiken is the the Midlands of South Carolina west of Columbia and two-thirds of the way to Augusta GA

This area was nothing more than farmland (mostly growing cotton) in 1827 when the announcement was made of plans to construct a rail line from Charleston to the town of Hamburg on the Savannah River.

• It was the longest rail line in the world a the time

• The motivation was to bring cotton from the midlands to the port of Charleston – so as not to lose duties that were being collected on these crops (as was occurring when they were shipped down the Savannah River to the port of Savannah)

• The story goes that a funny thing happened on the way to design the route of this railroad; the surveyor fell in love & wanted to marry the daughter of a local planter but the planter wanted the rail line to go near his property. He explained, “no railroad, no daughter”

• So the route was modified (which explains the funny shape on the map below) and the revised plan called for the trains to rise onto a plateau (500 ft above sea level) which pushed the limits of existing steam engine technology.

The RR was built and in 1833, the railroad company soon needed ways to increase traffic on the line and decided to take advantage of this spot with its higher elevation to create a new town. They acquired the land and laid out a plan covering 27 city blocks (which is still in place today) with wide avenues & green spaces (or Parkways) between the opposing lanes traffic. The town was named Aiken in honor of William Aiken, the President of the RR

And so in part because of this higher elevation, this new town gained a reputation as a health resort and became a popular place for Charleston residents to come to in the summer time to escape the heat & humidity of the low country.