Joe Riley Waterfront Park

These four blocks of Concord Street were once open to traffic; now a broad brick promenade runs along the water, lined with four rows of oaks. Cross paths lead directly from the city blocks to the Cooper River. The pier has no docking spaces: it was made for a person without a boat of their own, to sit on a swing over the water or fish. Cars are left in garages, and the shore remains pedestrian.

In the mid-nineteen seventies, there was no park on this shore. South of Gadsden's Wharf stood warehouses, cargo yards, and the blackened pilings of a steamboat terminal that had burned in nineteen fifty-five. Part of the land was a gravel parking lot. A private developer planned to build high-rise residential and retail structures here and called the future gated complex the “Venice of the Southeast.”

In nineteen seventy-five, Joseph P. Riley Jr. became mayor of Charleston. He pressed to keep the last open stretch of the Cooper River shore in this part of the city accessible to everyone. The developer's project had to be stopped, although the land was already privately owned. Riley arranged a land swap, took responsibility for finding the money, and in nineteen seventy-nine the city began buying the property.

Landscape architect Stuart O. Dawson was to connect Charleston's streets with the water. Four blocks of Concord Street were closed to cars. The roadway was replaced with a broad brick walkway lined with four rows of oaks, and the cross streets were extended as pedestrian paths to the Cooper River. Parking was moved into garages. The piers were designed without docking spaces: Riley wanted someone without a boat to be able to stand over the water anyway, sit on a swing, or fish.

Builders began work in nineteen eighty-eight. The following fall, Hurricane Hugo caused about one million dollars in damage to the park, which had not yet opened. Workers restored what had been destroyed, and on May eleventh, nineteen ninety, the park welcomed visitors—only one week later than the date set before the hurricane.

Riley later recalled seeing a familiar shoeshiner on the first completed pier during construction. The man rode around the city by bicycle and had very modest means. It turned out that he came here every morning. When Riley asked why, the man replied: because it was beautiful. That was why Riley insisted that the pier not be occupied by private boats and paid entertainment.

At the end of twenty fifteen, as Riley was completing his fortieth year as mayor, the city council named the park after him. The current brick walkway beneath the oaks occupies the former roadway of Concord Street, and the pier reaches the water in the same way Riley envisioned for city residents without boats of their own.