Forging a Legacy

Imagine a Daniel Island much different from the place we see today — where families are up with the sun to start collecting the day’s harvest, where homemade cast nets bring home meals from the surrounding rivers and creeks, where life is about making the most of what you have. 

 

That is the world Philip Simmons grew up in more than a century ago on Daniel Island. He was born in 1912 and lived with his grandparents, William and Sarah Simmons, in a small clapboard house on the northern side of the island. The young Simmons would spend only his first eight years of life living full time on the island before moving to downtown Charleston, where he would later forge a successful career as an award-winning master blacksmith. But his legacy here and on the Cainhoy peninsula remains as sturdy as his ironwork.

 

‘First an islander’

 

“Destined to become a blacksmith, he was first an islander who learned the ways of the farm and the river,” wrote John Michael Vlach in his book “Charleston Blacksmith: The Work of Philip 

Simmons.” 

 

“... His great grandparents had once been slaves, and they told him about those days in bondage. He learned that the work was hard then and learned from his grandparents that conditions had remained hard. He came to know and prefer a busy life full of chores and tasks.”

 

It was a routine that he would never abandon, noted Vlach, who wrote that Simmons’ action-oriented work ethic would become a trademark of the artisan’s life.  

 

Author Herb Frazier sat down with Simmons in the fall of 2005 to interview him for his book “Behind God’s Back: Gullah Memories of Cainhoy, Wando, Huger, Daniel Island, St. Thomas Island.”

 

“We used to call this Dan’s Island,” Simmons told Frazier, who shared the comments in his book. “That name held fast until the Northerners started calling it by its right name. Everybody on this island made a living either hunting, fishing or farming. Everything we had on the table came from that island. On the farm, we cured meats such as pork, beef, chicken, and wild game. Everything in the air, we eat that. Everything in the water, we eat that.”

 

Simmons left Daniel Island in 1920 to live with his mother in downtown Charleston and attend school, but in the summers, until he was 13, he would return to the island to help his grandparents’ farm and fish. His time immersed in nature amidst the island’s rural splendor would serve as inspiration for many of his ironwork designs. 

 

A dream sparked

 

Simmons spent his first months in Charleston admiring the city’s many iron gates, intrigued and inspired by their designs. On his walking route to school at Buist Academy, he discovered a blacksmith shop owned and operated by Peter Simmons. It didn’t take long for the sounds of metal working and the sparks of the forge’s fire to lure him in.  

 

“I always tell people I wanted to go to the blacksmith shop because it was exciting,” Simmons told The Daniel Island News in 2005. “There was fire, darkness, sparks of fire flying, horses kickin’ up and you had to hold them.” 

 

Although Philip shared the same last name as Peter, they were not related. But the young Simmons knew he wanted to be part of the shop’s activities. 

 

“He was 8 years old and he asked for a job!” said Rossie Colter, a close family friend and project administrator for the Philip Simmons Foundation. “And Peter looked at him and asked how old he was. When he said ‘8 years old,’ he said, ‘come back when you’re 13!’ ”

 

And so he did. Simmons returned five years later and got a job at the shop. By 1938, he began working in ornamental ironwork. His career would span some 78 years and earn him the title of the “most celebrated of Charleston ironworkers,” according to the Philip Simmons Foundation, which was established in 1991. He “fashioned more than 500 decorative pieces of ornamental iron: gates, fences, balconies and window grills,” states the foundation’s website. “The city of Charleston from end to end is decorated by his hand.”

 

Simmons’ work has received multiple recognitions over the years, including a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1982, the prestigious “Order of the Palmetto” award from the state of South Carolina in 1998, and the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for “Lifetime Achievement in the Arts” in 2001. In addition to many public and private commissions, his work is also displayed in the Smithsonian Institute. 

 

A lasting legacy

 

There are plentiful visible reminders of the late Simmons’ presence on the Cainhoy peninsula today — from Simmons Park, the park named in his honor at the corner of River Landing Drive and Seven Farms Drive on Daniel Island, to the gate he designed behind the park’s fountain, to the three public schools named for him in the new Point Hope community off Clements Ferry Road. 

 

At Philip Simmons Elementary, Middle and High schools there are multiple tributes to Simmons’ artistry in the form of murals, art projects, and architectural elements in each facility’s design.

 

“We are so proud to honor the work and life of Philip Simmons,” said Charla Groves, principal at Philip Simmons Middle School. “We make an effort to teach the value Mr. Simmons’s family placed on education ... We (also) teach that curiosity is an important characteristic ... Without his sense of wonder and curiosity, he may never have discovered his passion and made such an impact on the world.”

 

At Philip Simmons High School, iron gates inspired by Simmons’ work welcome visitors to the football stadium and photographs, paintings and other homages to the blacksmith adorn walls inside the main facility.

 

“We all work together with all of the other Philip Simmons schools, because we take great pride in it here, whether you’re a student or a staff member,” noted Dan Minkin, PSHS athletic director. “... We are so honored to be named after him and we want to make sure here at the school that we’re doing everything we can to honor the namesake and the family ... It’s a special place, it really is.”

 

Although Simmons passed away before the schools were opened, Colter is confident he would have been delighted to see the facilities and the wonderful school families that have developed over the years. 

 

“The schools are just incredible,” Colter said. “... I am sure he would be thrilled. He didn’t get to see that, but he would be thrilled.”

 

One of the most prevalent examples of Simmons’ imprint on Daniel Island is the wrought-iron logo he designed of a palm tree and water for the Daniel Island Company in the island’s early days of development. Not only is the logo still in use today, more than 25 years later, but it can still be seen on all of the island’s community signage and flags. 

 

“His design represents the water-oriented location of the island, with the squiggly lines representing the rivers and creeks, and the scrolls representing the nearby ocean,” noted Julie Dombrowski, communications director for the DI Development Company. “When it came time to develop Simmons Park, he was asked to incorporate the logo design into a gate design for the park. I believe his nephew Carlton is the one who actually constructed the ironwork. The original iron logo is displayed in the Daniel Island Real Estate sales gallery.”

 

For many years, Simmons attended early Park Days on Daniel Island to talk about his craft and participate in demonstrations.

 

“He loved to talk about growing up on Daniel Island,” Dombrowski recalled. 

 

Longtime Daniel Island resident Faith White remembers the special evening that she and her late husband, Henri, hosted Simmons at their home for dinner.

 

“We had a good time!” said White recently, when reminiscing about what she called a “grand evening.”

 

“He and my husband just talked and talked and talked ... It was a pleasure to have Mr. Simmons as a guest in my home.”

 

Daniel Island Historical Society co-founder Mike Dahlman also recalls spending time with Simmons, while writing his book, “Daniel Island.” He was introduced to Simmons by Reverend David Reilly, who was Simmons’ cousin and also grew up in the area. Dahlman and

Reilly visited Simmons at his home and blacksmith shop on Blake Street downtown in 2006.

 

“(They) spent most of the time discussing their combined family history and the location of many of their relatives interred on Daniel Island,” Dahlman said. “I was struck by his soft tone and total humility as they talked ... Philip gave me a tour of his home. Besides the living area and the office, there were two small bedrooms and a bathroom. I remember his bedroom having a full sized bed with a bible on a nightstand nearby.”

 

Simmons’ forge was located in another structure behind the main house, added Dahlman.

 

“I remember the anvil and the furnace for heating iron ­ — silent and dark as the forge was not in operation that afternoon ... Philip asked me if I had seen his forge. Although not working iron any longer, it was very obvious how much pride he still took in the art that had shaped his life.”

 

Simmons would enjoy his work well into his final years, said Colter, spending time designing up until just a short time before his death at 97 in 2009. 

 

“He was always a blacksmith,” Colter added. “He would always say he was just a boy who wanted to earn a dollar ... He lived a full life and when it was time to go, he decided he was ready to go.”

 

Although Simmons spent most of his life away from Daniel Island, he still held a special place in his heart for the rural landscape that framed his early days. A comment Simmons shared while visiting the island in 2005, captured in Herb Frazier’s book, conveys a bit of that nostalgia.

 

“This is home,” he said. 

 

To learn more about Simmons’ life and achievements, visit the Philip Simmons Foundation’s website at philipsimmons.org.