Pinopolis is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Berkeley County,

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 948.

Demographics

History

Founded circa 1845, the community was established at a relatively high elevation in the "low country" of South Carolina, and it gave an escape from

mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

es and uncomfortable heat. It became a gathering place for those of means during this time. It shared this aspect with other communities throughout the

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

economy of this era. A resident spontaneously coined the name "Pinopolis" because of the many pine trees. This is probably a reflection of schooling that included references to Greek and Latin. During the pre-

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

period it developed in this way and maintained as a place of polish and refinement. In the post-Civil War period and during the change of the South, it became the location of the first elementary school for black students. In 1939, the Santee Cooper Project dammed the

Santee River } The Santee River is a river in South Carolina in the United States, and is long. The Santee and its tributaries provide the principal drainage for the coastal areas of southeastern South Carolina and navigation for the central coastal plain of ...

, flooding nearly and creating Lake Moultrie with the Pinopolis Dam in 1946. Because of its high elevation, Pinopolis was spared from the flooding, and now exists as a peninsula on the lake. The Pinopolis Historic District North, Pinopolis Historic District South, and William Robertson House are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

References

Census-designated places in South Carolina Unincorporated communities in South Carolina Unincorporated communities in Berkeley County, South Carolina Populated places established in 1845 {{SouthCarolina-stub