History of Woodcreek Farms

By Club Historian Doug Bridges

In the 1940's Edwin Cooper, Sr., a prominent Columbia attorney and land developer, purchased about 2200 acres of rural land and established a wonderful hunting club for his friends and relatives to enjoy. Several cabins and cottages were built around Woodcreek Lake by Columbians who used them as weekend and vacation homes. Subsequently Mr. Cooper developed Forest Lake and later the Spring Valley subdivision.

In the early 1990's C.Heath Manning, his wife Bootsie and Edwin Cooper, Jr. became partners and set out to develop what is now Woodcreek Farms. The goal was to develop an upscale, architecturally controlled golf course community.

Early on Mr. Cooper explored different golf course designers but he was most impressed with Tom Fazio, who was known to focus more on quality than quantity. Mr. Fazio asked Mr. Cooper for a land plan of what the developer intended to create. He said, "Get me a land plan and I'll develop the course around your lay out." Mr. Cooper's response was, "No, you lay out the course and we'll develop our land plan around your course." And so it was. Tom Fazio was encouraged to utilize his talents with almost total freedom in creating the Woodcreek Farms golf course which is one of the most touted in the Southeastern United States.

The first home built in Woodcreek Farms was at 8 Fishing Point. It was constructed in 1997 and purchased by Keith and Carolyn Lay. Since then 400 residents reside in Woodcreek Farms and development is planned to occur for approximately the next twenty-five years.

In 2009 C. Heath Manning, who along with Darnall Boyd developed WildeWood and who had previously developed Lake Katherine, passed away. In October of that year Edwin Cooper, Jr. welcomed a new partner, Prime Development and its managing partner Harold Pickrel III.

Since its inception in the early 1990's the developers of Woodcreek Farms have focused on a conservation-minded development. Perhaps the originator and the "guardian angel" of the preservation efforts in the community was Bootsie Holliday Manning. (Holliday Road in WildeWood is named after Bootsie's maiden name.) She was the primary advocator of the protection of wetland zones and the preservation of the natural areas and habitat which Mr. Cooper Sr. and his friends enjoyed in the 1940's. Each year the South Carolina Wildlife Federation awards the Bootsie Manning Memorial Wildlife Habitat Award to a South Carolinian who best exemplifies the preservation of nature and the environment. Of all the people involved in the history of Woodcreek Farms Bootsie's ubiquitous care for nature perhaps remains the most noteworthy contribution of all those who have engaged in this endeavor.