508 E Ashley

508 E Ashley Drive began as a beach cottage on a high raised basement (into which an apartment was added) that was elevated and renovated in 2023-2024 as a result of recurring flooding problems that have caused the sills and lower portions of the building’s walls to rot, greatly compromising its structural integrity. Charleston County’s GIS system list the building’s construction date erroneously as circa 1980, a date likely derived from non-sympathetic materials that had been installed after Hurricane Hugo in 1989.  The building was constructed circa 1943, when it first appears on topographic maps.  508 E Ashley lies on lot no. 504 of the original subdivision plat of Folly Beach, laid out in 1920.  Deeds from the earliest conveyance to the present describe the property as lot 504; in reality, the 1920 Folly Beach plat (which was known to have errors and was resurveyed) shows today’s 508 E Ashley as lot 507.  Nearby 514 E Ashley is described in its deeds as lot 507 but is on lot 504, so it appears the block’s numbers were inverted from the time of survey.