For five generations, the surname Simmons has been synonymous with the town of Mount Pleasant. From 1916 to 1920 and then again from 1921-1928, Yonge Simmons served as mayor. Simmons Street at Moultrie Plaza and Yonge Street in the Old Village are both named after him.
In the 1940s, Yonge’s son Hugh and his wife Ella opened a grocery store called Simmons Brothers Grocery on Sullivan’s Island. Hugh also owned a vacant property, known today as Simmons Point, where he built a dock for local shrimp boats to deliver fresh catch that he bought and sold. That dock, according to their grandson Bubba, is where Simmons Seafood was established in 1947.
When Mount Pleasant saw its first growth spurt in the 1950s, Hugh and Ella recognized the need for expansion. They added a retail shop, the Simmons Seafood Market, to the front of their fish house…