St. George is a town in Dorchester County, South Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, St. George had a population of 1,843. It has been the county seat of Dorchester County since the county was formed from Colleton County in 1897.
Saint George is included within the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and used by the U. S. Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
History
The Town of St. George was incorporated by an act of the South Carolina Legislature on January 28, 1875. The town grew on both sides of South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, one of the first railroads built in the United States and the first to offer scheduled passenger trains pulled by steam locomotives. In the 1970s, Appleby's Methodist Church, Carroll Place, and Indian Fields Methodist Campground were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Geography
Saint George is located near the crossing of Interstate 26 and Interstate 95.
The town has a total area of , all of it land, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Demographics
2020 census
{| class="wikitable"
|+St. George racial composition
!Race
!
!
|-
|White (non-Hispanic)
|938
|50.9%
|-
|Black or African American (non-Hispanic)
|755
|40.97%
|-
|Native American
|8
|0.43%
|-
|Asian
|20
|1.09%
|-
|Pacific Islander
|3
|0.16%
|-
|Other/Mixed
|87
|4.72%
|-
|Hispanic or Latino
|32
|1.74%
|}
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,843 people, 744 households, and 453 families residing in the town.
2000 census
As of the census
Arts and culture
In the mid-1980s, town leaders wanted to create a yearly festival for the city. After reviewing possible ideas, local grocery store owner John Walters discovered from contacts at Quaker Oats that the upper part of Dorchester County (where Saint George is located) consumes more grits per capita than any other place in the world. In 1986, the first annual World Grits Festival was held. During the festival, which takes place in mid-April, close to 10,000 people flock to the tiny town for food, music, and games. Until 2019, the festival featured a contest in which people rolled in a vat of grits, vying to have the largest quantity of grits (by weight) stick to them. The festival is held annually; it was not held in 2020 or 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic but returned in 2022.