Living and Working on the Peninsula: A Study of Spatial Home and Work Location Relationships as Related to Occupations and Charleston\u27s Historic Landscape at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The spatial living and working patterns of Charleston’s grocers, dry goods store owners, attorneys, physicians, conductors, and teachers between 1890 and 1910 reflect the city’s historic land use and cultural norms. Tense race relations left their mark on every part of the city’s history – including work and educational opportunities. This, in turn, further added to the physical barriers enacted as a result of the divisive Jim Crow Laws of the era. This thesis uses GIS-mapped work and home addresses of grocers, dry goods store owners, attorneys, physicians, conductors, and teachers in 1890, 1900, and 1910 to both visually illustrate and geometrically calculate commutes and spatial residential patterns of these Charleston professionals. Correlations along the lines of occupation, sex, and race help to illuminate the historic differences between Charleston neighborhoods. A lack of representation of African Americans in occupations and city directories, however, indicates the larger, pervasive tone concerning race and segregation in America at this time. Changes in the demographics of the professions studied at the turn of the twentieth century in Charleston also mirror larger trends related to women’s rights and the standardization of many professional industries. Ultimately, this thesis helps to shed light on future opportunities for preservationists and planners to tell new, previously untold stories of Charleston’s past spatial relationships. Some of the occupations studied within this thesis have yet to be fully examined within the context of interaction with and movement about the Charleston peninsula