There was a time when Forest Acres served as something of a bedroom community for Fort Jackson, accommodating transient military families with the attendant amenities you’d expect around an Army base — banks, alteration businesses, liquor stores and barber shops — while providing a central retail hub at Trenholm Plaza.
Forest Acres has long been more than that, though, with ranch-style, large-lot houses forming the backbone of neighborhoods that have been home to generations of Columbians of all stripes, not just those with military backgrounds. Rather than transience, in fact, the area’s demographics speak more to age and stability: The median age of Forest Acres’ 10,000 residents is 42.5 (several years above the South Carolina average) and its median income of $50,700 is quite a bit higher than the state’s average, too. Home prices, also, are above the median at $163,600 — and yet about $100,000 cheaper than the least expensive homes in, say, Shandon.
Despite this snapshot of a graying, upper-middle-class area, however, Forest Acres is anything but stagnant. Nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to find vestiges of the family-owned businesses that once sustained the patchwork community that stretches mainly along both sides of Forest Drive from the Beltline to Trenholm Road areas. Instead, new retail and commercial developments are popping up all the time to satiate the swelling ranks of homebuyers who are making Forest Acres one of the city’s hottest places to live.
It’s this mix of stability and vitality — typified by reasonable home prices, good schools and growing amenities — that is attracting a new generation to Forest Acres.
As much as anyone, Chris Lawther and Leslie Greene represent the new face of Forest Acres. The couple, 32 and 28, respectively, are first-time homebuyers and parents of a 2-year-old (Lily) who, after a three-year search, found everything they were looking for in the Satchel Ford neighborhood just off Trenholm Road.
“We literally looked at more than a hundred homes,” says Lawther, a musician who teaches banjo at Bill’s Pickin’ Parlor when he’s not landscaping with Mill Creek Greenhouses. “We were living over in the Greenlawn area, Cedar Terrace near the VA Hospital, and had narrowed it down to Forest Acres and Rosewood.”
Greene, who works for a local acupuncturist, says the idea of having land also appealed to the couple.
“We looked a lot around Hopkins and the Hardscrabble area, but truthfully, the amount of yard we have with this house made it an easy compromise,” Greene says. “Plus, as a runner, it’s great to have a big neighborhood to run in without having to get out in traffic somewhere or any bad areas.”
As most Forest Acres’ residents appreciate, the area’s proximity to all corners of town is hard to beat.
“We’re 10 minutes from downtown, 10 minutes from the Northeast, 10 minutes to pretty much anywhere in town you can get to with I-20 and I-77 right here,” says Joy Taylor, who has lived in Forest Acres since 1977 when her father, an Army colonel, retired here near Rockbridge Country Club. After college and marriage, she has lived the past 18 years in the same house across Trenholm from where she grew up near Satchel Ford Elementary and where she and her husband, Ron, have raised two children — Keith, 15 and Kelly, 12.
“The whole area has changed so much. I remember when from Trenholm Plaza out to Fort Jackson was nothing but trees,” Taylor says. “Now it’s just exploded.
“But what hasn’t changed are the things that have kept us here through the years. We’ve often looked around, but just on our street for example, of the 15 homes on it, eight are owned by the same people who built them. The community as a whole is just very close, very peaceful and quiet. People really do look out for one another, and the schools — Satchel Ford, Creighton and A.C. Flora — are as good as it gets in Columbia.”
Taylor says the area’s diversity also is appealing to her.
“We have the two big synagogues plus you also have vibrant Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Lutheran communities here,” Taylor says. “It’s great to have that diversity here, and everyone gets along together so well that it makes you really feel part of a special community.”
Despite its small size, Forest Acres has its own town council and boasts a strong police presence many residents welcome.
“It’s been weird, really, and kind of funny,” says Lawther, who performs with the popular band Loch Ness Johnny. “I mean, I’m a musician, and never in my life would I ever have thought I’d be the kind of person pleased with a strong police presence around where I live. But I like it, which kind of freaks me out a little bit.
“It’s nice to know you’re protected,” Greene says. “It’s nice not to have to see people walking down the street in baggy pants down to their ankles causing trouble. I like my windows not to rattle at night and not to wake up to sirens.
While not singled-out as a main factor for choosing Forest Acres over Rosewood, Lawther says the many shopping amenities have been a pleasant surprise.
“We can walk to the Original Pancake House,” Lawther says, laughing. “And Publix, too. That’s nice to do as a family.”
With even more restaurants coming in — a Five Guys Burgers is going up where the old Exxon was at the corner of Trenholm and Forest Drive, a Zoe’s Kitchen is replacing the old Fran’s and a new venture from successful restaurateur Kristian Niemi of Gervais & Vine is scheduled for Trenholm Plaza where Tuesday Morning is — the upscale, trendy vibe is only accelerating.
“It’s not as quiet as it used to be, but then again, Forest Acres has really changed with the times and it is really still its own town within a town,” Taylor says. “There’s a Starbucks, but Hooligans is still there, too, and The Other Store. Richland and Columbia Malls have had their heydays and slowed down, but there’s still a ton of shops and great places to eat up and down Forest Drive.
“What hasn’t changed is how people feel about living here. They love it like we do; you just can’t beat the proximity, the security, the schools and the sense of friendliness we have. It’s special.”