East Side History Series: Michele Moore’s East Side Roots - 89 Drake Street and 21 Cooper Street

 by Susan Millar Williams, Ph. D. 

Michele Moore

The Palmer Campus is proud to claim author Michele Moore, who brought Sounds of the Cigar Factory to Eastside Day 2015 and then took the stellar cast—many of whom were Trident Technical College students, faculty, and staff—on to highly acclaimed performances at Piccolo Spoleto and the Pat Conroy Literary Festival. Michele’s novel was recently awarded the 2016 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction.

Michele’s roots on the East Side run deep. The photograph above shows her grandmother, Alice Cahill, relaxing at 89 Drake Street, just across the street from the factory where her aunt and other family members worked making cigars. The house, which they rented, no longer exists—it was on the site now occupied by our campus, and was probably torn down to make way for C.A. Brown High School around 1960. Alice had twin sisters, Ruby and Pearl, and a brother named Laurence. Around this time, according to census records, they were living with their mother, Nell, and her sister Agnes Blake. Alice later married John Moore, who lived just around the corner at 21 Cooper Street. That house, too, is no more, and the site is used as a parking lot.  

Alice Cahill, Michele Moore’s grandmother, sits on the porch at
her home on Drake Street, around 1920.

This snapshot gives us a window on East Side life in the early twentieth century. Alice—who I think looks a little like Michele—is sitting in a porch swing sporting a fashionable middy blouse. Her dog is in the foreground, and behind her we can catch a glimpse of the interior of her home.

If you have snapshots of East Side houses, events, people, or even pets, whatever the time period, we would love to have copies for our archives! We will be glad to scan and return the originals. For more information, please contact me at susan.williams@tridenttech.edu.    

For more information: 

• To find out more about the novel from the University of South Carolina Press
• On The Cigar Factory and the 2016 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction
• To buy the the book locally at Buxton Books (signed copies available)
• To buy the book online: The Cigar Factory.
• To connect with the author on the Cigar Factory Facebook page