Paris Avenue Comes Out From Behind the Cones Just as Port Royal's October Fills Up

"Construction actually started to take place three weeks before I moved in here," Salix Ray told WSAV in August. Ray owns Bracken and Bone, the boutique pet store that opened on Paris Avenue while the road was already blocked off. "Getting some of the inventory in was a bit of a challenge. But since then, the biggest thing is just trying to get word of mouth out. But unfortunately, because of how it looks, nobody wants to come down."

"How it looks" is about to change. The first phase of the Paris Avenue streetscape is scheduled to reach substantial completion this week. The Historic Port Royal Foundation reopens in a larger building farther up the street on October 24. The town's October calendar puts several events on or near the corridor in between. For a street that spent spring and summer behind orange cones, the next few weeks are the first real test of what the town has said all along. Paris Avenue was built to move trucks, and Port Royal is rebuilding it so people will walk it.

A Road Built for Trucks, Narrowed for People

Paris Avenue has always been unusually wide for a main street. Coverage in both the Island Packet and The Island News explains why: the roadway was originally built for truck traffic. The redesign narrows it into a main street that fits the restaurants, shops and foot traffic now lining it.

Town Manager Van Willis told WTOC in March that the goal is "making it more user-friendly, more pedestrian-friendly, which will be a little more accommodating to the restaurants and stores that can do some outdoor things." He also called it "probably one of the largest projects we have ever undertaken."

Phase 1 is budgeted at about $1.6 million and runs from Parker's to the Helena House assisted living facility. It is the first piece of a planned $16 million overhaul of the whole corridor. According to The Island News, the design work covers:

• New curb and gutter, underground utilities, pavers, benches and trash cans along the corridor
• Narrower travel lanes, which free up room for wider, shaded plaza-style areas along the sidewalk
• "High Rise Live Oaks" and Fringe Trees planned for both sides of the avenue, replacing the palmettos now in the medians and traffic islands, with 26 new oaks planned near the Cypress Wetlands
• Bike racks, plus signs pointing cyclists to the Spanish Moss Trail, which is expected to eventually start on Paris Avenue
• A 15-by-20-foot brick mosaic of alligators, otters, snakes, turtles and wading birds, set into a raised brick crosswalk in front of the Cypress Wetlands

The mosaic is a small thing that says a lot about the plan. A raised crosswalk slows cars right where people step off the sidewalk toward the wetlands. Willis described it as a piece that "will kind of incorporate all the species of birds and animals that you can see there."

Where the Schedule Stands This Week

The finish line has already moved once. In the minutes of the July 1 council workshop, the completion target was September 3, and the minutes noted that a supplier delay on manhole covers and drainage structures had been resolved.

At the September 2 workshop, town staff gave the current dates. The east side of Phase 1 was getting its first lift of asphalt that week. Substantial completion was set for October 9 and final completion for November 5. Both dates are forecasts. As of this writing, no source confirms that either one has been met, that the mosaic is in place, or that a ribbon cutting has been planned.

Paris Avenue isn't done with traffic cones yet, either. Staff said work on the west side follows, with a first lift of pavement, a temporary traffic signal and one-lane traffic controls. The town hasn't announced a timeline for the later, separately funded phases of the overhaul. Willis told WTOC in March that he hopes the full renovation can be finished in the next three to four years.

Expect October to look partly finished. Some stretches will be ready to walk, and others will still have a flagger.

The Museum Moved Up the Street

The biggest opening on Paris Avenue this month comes from the Historic Port Royal Foundation. At the same September 2 workshop, the Foundation told council its museum at 1634 Paris Avenue would close around September 8, right after Labor Day, so it could move into a larger, more permanent visitor center. At that point it was finishing paint and trim work at the new building.

The new home is at 1800 Paris Avenue, and the grand opening is listed on the town calendar for Saturday, October 24, at 5 p.m. The Foundation's July posts say the celebration will include its annual oyster roast and a silent auction. New exhibits are planned on Native Americans, European explorers, wars and plantations, alongside the town history the museum already covers. The earlier museum's exhibits covered the Port Royal Railroad, Port Royal Elementary School, and the local shrimping, fishing and crabbing industries. The Foundation's own visit page still lists the old 1634 address, so go by the town calendar.

The timing matters. The museum has moved into a bigger, permanent space on the same street the town is reshaping for pedestrians, and it opens just as the first phase of that work wraps up.

October on and Around Paris Avenue

Here is how the month lines up on the town's calendar. The streetscape milestones are included because they shape how the street will feel on each date.

October 24 has two events back to back. Haunted Hallows starts at Naval Heritage Park at 3 p.m., and the museum opening follows at 5 p.m. at 1800 Paris Avenue. The next afternoon, Trunk or Treat fills the historic downtown blocks between 9th and 12th streets. November keeps the corridor busy too. The Rotary Club of the Lowcountry holds its 29th Annual Oyster Roast at Live Oaks Park on November 7, and the town's Christmas Tree Lighting is set for Live Oaks Park on December 2.

The Businesses That Kept the Lights On

The town said repeatedly that businesses along Paris Avenue stayed open during construction. They did, though for some of them the summer was hard.

Griddle & Grits has served Paris Avenue for four years. In August, owner Blake Kennedy told WSAV that gross sales were "triple digits down" and that construction had cut off most of the restaurant's tourism business from the Cypress Wetlands crowd. The restaurant closed on August 4 and 5 while its sidewalk was torn out and replaced. In early August, a GoFundMe organized by Kennedy had raised $2,310 of a $6,000 goal. On August 8, the Island Packet reported that the new sidewalk had reopened, the parking lot was still blocked, and the restaurant remained open.

Help came from across the river. Blackstone's Cafe in Beaufort shared half its profits from August 4 and 5, the two days Griddle & Grits was closed, with the Port Royal restaurant. Owner Jake Higgins wrote that Griddle & Grits is "owned and operated by great people who make delicious food and serve up a true Southern meal experience."

Other businesses kept going too. Willis pointed to a full dinner at Frank's Bistro in March as proof the corridor was still drawing crowds. Fuel & Fire Port Royal Cigar Bar at 705 Paris Avenue held its first Fuel & Fire Festival on September 11 and 12. The free event featured Adam David, a winner of The Voice, and the Pat Travers Band. Bracken and Bone made it through its first season with a closed road out front.

The finished sidewalks, the shaded plazas and the oaks are meant to bring these storefronts more foot traffic over the coming years. For now, the October calendar puts people on Paris Avenue several times in three weeks. Each event is a chance to stop at the places that stayed open through the construction.

As Paris Avenue changes, so will the homes around it. Chambers Helms Group follows Port Royal projects like this one block by block. If you own near the corridor and want to know where your home stands as the street changes around it, start with a free home valuation.