Mile Markers on My Side: Azalea Park

This cute little park became one of my favorite places to walk, sit and relax.

Famous for statues. The first time I came I had to park far away because the park was
having an annual jazz festival and statue convention in the park.
$20 entrance fee, I passed since I was just by myself
and decided to come a different day.
Sure glad I didn't give up on exploring this beautiful park
that filled my summer days with beauty and peace.

I would park and walk to the downtown market.

The park is in the center of the city. One day I went exploring which involved lots of walking.

Many older style homes and churches. Almost felt like I had gone back in time!

Azalea Park

12 Acre Oasis In Downtown Summerville

Peaceful Paths

Statuaries

Butterfly Ponds

Gardens

Open Gazebos

After 68 years, Azalea Park is still blooming

as a miniature paradise in the middle of historic

Summerville.

The park has gone through several

restorations and additions since it was first started

in the early years of the Great Depression. After

surviving several ice storms and hurricanes, the

park is now at the height of its beauty each spring

during the Flowertown Festival.

In the 1930s, a group of Summerville women

called the Civic League, raised money to purchase

16 acres between Magnolia Street and Central

Avenue. The members of the league, which was

the precursor to the Garden Club of Summerville.

Then-Mayor Grange S. Cuthbert decided

to convert “this midtown land into a miniature paradise

by using a Works Progress Administration grant to pay

laborers 10 cents an hour to convert bramble into beauty

Legend of the Sitting Dog

One winter day in a small town called Summerville,

there was a park with three small fish ponds. Also,

it was full of flowers waiting to bloom. There was

a bronze statue of a dog that looked like he was

sitting, waiting for something to happen. The dog

looked so real, people sometimes stopped to pet

it. When they petted the dog, they noticed that

the statue was never cold like most statues. It felt

warm like a real live dog. The people didn’t know

that, even though the dog couldn’t move, he had

feelings on the inside. He was real in his heart.

The dog was waiting for spring to come. On the

first official day of spring, March 20th, when the

flowers were in bloom, he would have one whole

day of being real.

So when you stop to pet the sitting dog, he will

always feel warm like a real dog, until March 20th.

On that day the statue will feel cold, because the

spirit of the dog will be gone for one whole day.

He will be jumping with children and chasing

butterflies and balls.

After this day of play, his spirit will return to the

statue, and he will sit and wait again. He will wait

for his one magic day in spring.

Once the park was laid out, plants were needed.

Summerville resident George Segelken gave 33,000

flowers to the park from his Summerville Floral Nursery,

according to Hill. He “planted many of the azaleas

himself. He was a pioneer in the propagation of the

azalea, first doing it in a greenhouse... His efforts

helped popularize the plant throughout the state and

others in the region.

Segelken died in 1978 and a plaque was erected in the park in 1981 in memory of the man “who

donated plants, time and loving care to the creation of Azalea Park in 1935 and the park restoration in 1976.”
His wife requested that some of the salmon pink azaleas developed by Segelken which he named

“Pride of Summerville”