Romain Retreat rebounds -- and then some -- from Hugo's wrath 14 years
ago
In fact, Romain Retreat has such an idyllic setting that you could hardly tell what happened there 14 years ago this past September.
Unless, of course, you look closely at the trees. The neighborhood is thick with pines and oaks, but there are no really tall ones. They are all about the same height.
There's a good reason. In September 1989, Hurricane Hugo pounded the coast. While Hugo's winds and rains stretched from Charleston to the Grand Strand, the brunt of the storm wracked the less populated strip from Isle of Palms to the Santee River -- much of it in the Francis Marion National Forest.
Tides soared 15 feet above normal height, flooding homes and schools used as shelters. So many trees snapped that a stretch near Bull's Bay looked like a burned out wasteland for years afterward. Romain Retreat, then an enclave of fewer than 50 homes at the tip of Sewee Road, was right in the path.
Yet despite the devastation, the now 18-year-old community started over, just like its neighbors in Copahee, McClellanville and Awendaw. Residents who rebuilt included Bob King, a businessman who developed the neighborhood. King died a few years ago.
Today, Romain Retreat is a flourishing neighborhood of moderate-sized brick homes on tidy lots and three-story mansions lapping up to the bay. Even the trees, while comparatively small, are healthy, green and growing.
As a result, Romain Retreat has become a popular getaway for wealthier homeowners, who enjoy the spacious lots, the convenience of an enlarged boat landing on the Intracoastal Waterway and the privacy.
"It's so serene out here," said Bobette Fisher, a real estate agent with Century 21 who sells homes in Romain Retreat.
Even though it was at ground zero during Hugo, the property is actually elevated enough that builders can construct homes with ground floors.
At the same time, Mount Pleasant has continued to sprawl eastward. That has brought Romain Retreat, located in an unincorporated section of Charleston County just north of Awendaw, within a 15-minute trip to shopping centers, movie theaters and dining spots -- whether by car or by boat to the Isle of Palms. And it's a 15-mile drive to East Cooper Airport.
"We thought we were moving out of town," said Jan Snook, a real estate agent who moved to Romain Retreat five years ago. "We wanted a more rural environment. Now, it's not rural," she said. But the community isn't exactly urban, either.
"You don't hear any traffic. It's not unusual to see wild turkeys," she said. And especially in the spring, "you are going to have alligators in your yard. We're talking 9 to 12 feet," she said.
While bordering on a saltwater sound, the neighborhood also has a freshwater enclosure frequented by wood storks, herons and other waterfowl.
"It's not unusual to count 100 species on the pond," Snook said.
Romain Retreat has 100 lots -- about half on the ICW -- and all but a handful are 2-1/2 acres or more. Lot costs are $180,000 to $875,000. About 55 homes have been constructed, with one or two new homes built a year. Home sizes are from 1,600 to 5,000 square feet, and prices range from $300,000 to $2.5 million. The architectural styles are flexible, with everything from traditional Lowcountry dwellings to Mediterranean-toned homes with tile roofs.
The neighborhood used to be mostly retirees and empty-nesters, but a number of families with younger children have moved in recently. A sign of the youth movement: "We do it big at Halloween down at the dock," Snook said, with hay rides, dunking for apples, a pig roast and a haunted house for the kids.
In fact, it's nights like Halloween that residents mostly clearly sense they are in an unspoiled tip of South Carolina, where the heavens are so clear that College of Charleston astronomy students take field trips there.
"You still have a dark sky," Snook said. "You can see the stars."
To visit Romain Retreat from downtown Charleston, cross the Cooper River bridge into Mount Pleasant and stay on U.S. Highway 17 for about 20 miles. Turn right on Sewee Road and follow it for about seven miles to Come About Way. Make a right on Come About Way to enter Romain Retreat.