This two-story brick hotel in Mayesville, S.C., is a shadow of its former self. Intricate glasswork hangs awry alongside broken windows. Second-floor windows are boarded-up. The first floor is virtually gutted.
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown captured this shot earlier this month on a trip through the Sumter County town. Mayesville, population 731, grew up along the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad, she writes.
“It reached its heyday at the turn of the 20th Century with two banks, a hotel and various other businesses associated with a farming and railroad community. What remains of the Kineen Hotel still stands, but is in very bad repair. The old railroad bed has been removed and the old railroad right-of-way now serves as green space thought the center of town.”
Sumter County, which is home to Shaw Air Force Base, is comprised of 108,052 people. Just under 50 percent are white; 47 percent are black. The poverty rate is estimated to be 18.2 percent in the county, but it is a much higher percentage in places like Mayesville. Poverty there has been estimated to be 36.5 percent for all, but 49.5 percent for children under 18.
Photo taken in February 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.