The East Shore Terminal Company was in the business of transporting freight between trains and piers, "general wharfage business", and the compressing and storing of cotton, according to Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States.
[1] In 1890 the East Shore Terminal Company was formed by a syndicate of outside railroad investors.
[2] The company received a 30-year franchise from the city of Charleston to construct a waterfront railroad spur.
[3] In January 1893, the company suffered $4,000 worth of losses when a fire raced through a Charleston wharf, destroying four train cars and track.
[5] As of 1898, the company owned three miles of track, along with 14 wharves, 30 warehouses, three cotton compresses and about 30 acres of property.