Ghost Station, Life and Light The Way It Was
by Madeline Carol

The crossing over the Ashley River from the peninsula of Charleston to West Ashley has been the site of several bridges. In 1808, a wooden bridge was built but was burned during The War Between the States on orders from General P.T. Beauregard, out of fear that General Sherman moving out of Georgia into South Carolina would come to Charleston. After the War, in 1885, a wooden bridge was finished, complete with a toll house; and it was not until July of 1891 that the tolls were removed. This old wooden bridge was kept in place until the WWI Memorial Bridge was finished in 1926. The WWI Memorial Bridge is the old Ashley River Bridge which currently sits as a landmark to many a Charlestonian who has made the crossing into or out of the city over the years. The old bridge was a handsome structure in its earlier days, being adorned with ornate lights, concrete railing, sidewalks and four towers to give it an impressive appearance against the elements. The previous wooden bridges that served this crossing were either damaged or destroyed by some of the fierce storms that hit Charleston over the centuries. Yet, even the new concrete bridge fell victim to the weather and time as it lost its glass globes and concrete column lights.

At the foot of the bridge on the city side is a building that almost seems like it was always there and was always part of the crossing. It is the old Limehouse Service Station, which over the years served many a passerby as a convenient stopping place for gas, ice, bread, shells, fuel or just a snack. It was a comfortable place, relaxed and not pretentious in its design. It seemed like it belonged in that spot just as comfortably as the customer felt when he or she passed through that door during one of the visits to the old station. You might see Citadel Cadets there on a given afternoon, or a fisherman with his boat stopped, or you might see someone there with the latest model of a new car filling up with gas. The old green roof yielded to the orange one that became a trademark of the station, and over the years the old icehouse disappeared as did the old-time Coca Cola signs, the old-fashioned pumps, the old-fashioned drink boxes, the old mechanical vending machines, and the old gas insignia. When Hurricane Gracie swept down on Charleston on September 29, 1959, the station weathered the storm and opened for business. It suffered some damage but not so much that it couldn't recover its lively role. But then the power of Hurricane Hugo swept in across the city, bringing over 4 feet of salt water, devastating the station, and stamping out forever the business life that existed there. As the months tumbled on, the station took on a more deserted and less familiar look than it had for many Charlestonians.

Madeline Carol, in the sixth of the Spirits of Charleston Collection, revisits the old station on an early fall morning when the fog has settled in across the old Ashley River Bridge and enveloped the station. She recreates in water colors the feeling of a heavy fog and the glowing of lights in the distance with the eerie quietness of an early morning setting when the sun is just starting to peek up from the east on the Charleston landscape. Yet here in the shroud of an early morning fog on the old Ashley River Bridge is that station with its memories brought to life in apparitions of times past. In this view, one can gaze and see this disappearing landmark in life again, with its gas insignia lit, its old-fashioned drink signs proudly standing, people visiting the station to procure gas or snacks in the early morning. In the emptiness of the building there again is the fulfillment of life as through ghostly apparitions and the use of memory, you can see what now has disappeared and is disappearing before our very eyes. Ghost Station - a place where you could always find service and familiarity, and now a print where you can always recreate those memorable sensations of a time gone, but a memory not forgotten. Through impressionistic colors and memorable recreations, the viewer not only can see but also can feel a part of Charleston and America that has come and gone. While all across America these old familiar stations, with their old-fashioned signs and designs are vanishing as time marches on. Madeline Carol's Ghost Station preserves these pleasant sights in vibrant color.

Madeline Carol, Capturing the Spirits
Art Gallery