Starting Dec. 1, James Island’s May Forest State Park will be open to the public on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., plus the first and third weekends of each month during those same hours. The second and fourth weekends will be set aside for visitors attending registered programs, and the park will remain closed to the public on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The new schedule marks what South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism Director Duane Parrish described as “this next phase of our soft opening at May Forest, expanding our programming and giving visitors additional weekend access,” according to WCBD News 2. Parrish added that the park has been “aligning time and resources to complete additional site work” as it moves toward fuller public access. The official schedule and admission details are listed on the South Carolina Parks website, which confirms the park will be open to the public on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as the first and third weekends of each month during those hours.
Admission for seniors ages 65 and older and children ages 6 to 15 will be $2, per the same park listing. The park sits on James Island at the end of Fort Johnson Road and covers 23 acres that were once owned by the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy, the site notes.
From Convent Grounds to State Park
The Sisters of Charity sold the waterfront property to the state in 2021, as The Post and Courier reported. The former May Forest Convent on the grounds was built in the 1950s and has been planned for conversion by the state park service into an event and hospitality space, according to the same report. That transformation is expected to eventually turn the former convent into an event venue with guest rooms, with a view of Charleston Harbor.
The property’s chapel still holds stained-glass windows forged in the 1800s, the Post and Courier reported in an earlier piece on the site’s transition from a place of worship to an event venue. Those windows remain part of what officials have called the park’s unique and fascinating history, a site that blends decades of religious use with its new identity as public parkland.
What Visitors Can Expect Next
With the December schedule change, May Forest will offer more regular access than it has during its earlier soft-opening phase, though the reserved program weekends mean not every weekend will be open to walk-in visitors. The park publishes its full program schedule at southcarolinaparks.com for anyone hoping to plan a visit around the registered-program weekends.
