Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

“F” is for Frost, Susan Pringle (1873-1960)

“F” is for Frost, Susan Pringle (1873-1960). Preservationist, suffragist. Born in Charleston, Frost became actively involved in women’s club work and the women’s suffrage movement. She was president of the Charleston Equal Suffrage League. However, her passion was historic preservation and saving Charleston’s old houses from demolition and out-of-state purchasers. In short order her crusade led to a drive to rehabilitate from slum status the picturesque houses of East Tradd, St.Michael’s Alley, and the section of East Bay that would later become famous as Rainbow Row. In 1920 Frost founded what became the Preservation Society of Charleston, one of the nation’s oldest such groups. She championed Charleston’s zoning ordinance of 1931. Susan Pringle Frost’s historic preservation initiatives contributed substantially to the movement that transformed the streets of Charleston and made it a national tourist attraction.

Stay Connected
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.