Y’all should see my office right now. It’s the kind of chaos only a half-century of content could create. You read that right; Charleston, “the city magazine since 1975,” is turning the big 5-0 this year! For many months, I have been flipping through my archive of back issues, from the very first in August 1975—with its watercolor of the French Huguenot Church by Virginia Fouche Bolton on the cover (below)—and through the decades. So you can imagine the piles of magazines, dog-eared and sticky-noted, that surround me. It’s been an entertaining and eye-opening bit of time travel, immersing myself in the Charleston of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s and reflecting on the stories we’ve produced since I took the helm in 2000.
To properly kick off this momentous 50th year, we take a look at the city vis-á-vis her mayors and the challenges each faced. In “Charleston, Then & Now” (page 88), editor at large Stephanie Hunt chronicles the Charleston of 1975 with the newly elected Joe Riley—beginning the first of 10 terms and taking on a dilapidated and desolate commercial center and few public spaces—and juxtaposes it with our bustling city today, with Mayor William Cogswell entering his second year, tackling issues such as livability, affordability, and flooding. It’s an intriguing account on the city’s growth and development, with concerns and themes that persist today.
For a different kind of challenge, we present “The Charleston Bucket List: 50th-Anniversary Edition” (page 72), 50 activities that all locals, bin-yahs and cum-yahs alike, must experience. Check off your list throughout the year, and share your adventures by tagging us in your posts (#CharlestonMagBucketList2025) for a chance to be featured in a future issue.
Happy New Year, and here’s to 2025! The staff and I look forward to celebrating with you all year long.
Darcy Shankland
dshankland@charlestonmag.com