Featured – Page 14 – Building a better South

September 29, 2014November 16, 2014

Goat Town, Georgia

Better South President Andy Brack remembers seeing the “Goat Man” as a boy when in the back seat of a station wagon traveling between his father’s country cousins in Allentown, Ga., to nearby Macon, where his grandparents lived. You’d see him pushing a wagon filled with all sorts of junk. He was, in a word, a “character.”

VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown has this to say about the photo he took in 2013 of the odd Washington County landmark: “Goat Town isn’t really a town and it never was, though you can locate it on a good map. It’s just down the hill from Deepstep, whose iconic old store is also associated with the Veal family. T. Jeff Veal III, who uses his grandfather’s old country store as a workshop to build custom furniture, explained to me that a large herd of goats was kept around the corner in years gone by and the name just stuck. I’ve been here a couple of times and it never ceases to amaze me; it’s widely popular with Georgia’s backroads photographers.”
Photo is copyrighted by Brian Brown. All rights reserved.

September 25, 2014November 16, 2014

Grand old house, Orangeburg County, S.C.

We’re still trying to find out the history behind this grand house about five miles northwest of Holly Hill, S.C. where U.S. Highways 15 and 176 split. We’re told a family that just had a daughter (see if you can find the pink stork sign) is renovating it slowly. [We shared this popular photo first in 2013 and thought you’d like to see it again.]

UPDATE, 9/27/14: Our friend Lynn Teague of Columbia says her kin and friends call this the old Galphin House. Later she sent word that archives in Orangeburg identify the house as being built by the Rev. Richard Powers Galphin and Lillian Wells Galphin, who died in 1913 and 1935 respectively. She added that the land around Wells Crossroads likely belonged to the Taylor family more than 200 years ago. Thanks Lynn!

Holly Hill, which had about 1,300 people in 2000, is near the Santee Cooper lakes in Orangeburg County as well as Interstates 26 and 95. Thirteen miles south is the National Audubon society’s Francis Beidler Forest in Four Holes Swamp. It features the largest remaining stand of virgin bald cypress and tupelo gum swamp in the world. Also a few miles from Holly Hill are two large cement quarries.

Holly Hill is just one of the many towns in Orangeburg County, South Carolina’s largest. Some 91,476 people were thought to live in the county in 2012, according to the U.S. Census. Almost two in three residents are black. Some 24.5 percent of residents live below poverty.

QuickFacts about Orangeburg County from the U.S. Census

September 23, 2014

Parker Store, Wilkinson County, Ga.

VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown sent along this picture of the old Parker Store (ca. 1927) in rural Wilkinson County in central Georgia.

Brown writes, “According to Keith Colson, Mrs. Pearl Parker opened this store in 1927 and operated it until her death in 1970. Her daughter, Henry Belle Whitaker, kept it open until 1980. I’m unsure as to the actual community in which it is located, but it’s north of Irwinton on US Highway 441.”

Today, Wilkinson County has fewer people (9,577 in the 2012 Census estimate) than it did in the 1940s (11,025 people). About three in five people are white, with most of the rest being black. Poverty is about 20 percent.

More from QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.
More from Wikipedia.

September 21, 2014September 21, 2014

Shed, Williamsburg County, S.C.

An equipment shed sits on the back of a plowed field in rural Williamsburg County. writes Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown.

Williamsburg County, which is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C., has a population of just under 34,000 people. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.

Williamsburg County on Wikipedia.

QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

September 19, 2014September 20, 2014

Grain bins, Clarendon County, S.C.

Grain bins in rural Clarendon County, S.C.

Look around rural areas of South Carolina and you’re almost more likely to see grain bins than structures like tobacco barns, writes photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C.

These bins are in rural Clarendon County, which has 34,357 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 population estimate. About half of the county’s residence are white; the other half are black.

More QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

September 17, 2014September 16, 2014

Another empty store, Colleton County, S.C.

Here’s another empty store just down the road from one we profiled a couple of days back. It, too, is in Colleton County, S.C., just east of Walterboro on S.C. Highway 64.

Walterboro is the seat of government in Colleton County, a Southern Crescent county split by Interstate 95,. The county is home to 38,153 people, 21 percent of whom live at or below the federal poverty level.

Quickfacts on Colleton County from the U.S. Census Bureau.

September 15, 2014September 16, 2014

Swap meet, Colleton County, S.C.

Creative advertising, Colleton County, S.C.

If you’re looking for a “swap meet” — a gathering of folks who want to trade stuff that others might like — look no further than rural Colleton County east of Walterboro, S.C., on S. C. Highway 64. According to this clever advertisement “vehicle,” there’ll be a swap meet here on November 1.

Quickfacts on Colleton County from the U.S. Census Bureau.

September 13, 2014September 16, 2014

Empty station, Colleton County, S.C.

You can see where gas pumps once lived outside this now-empty and deteriorating cinder block store in the Neyles community a few miles east of Walterboro, S.C.

Quickfacts on Colleton County from the U.S. Census Bureau.

September 11, 2014

Country church, Clarendon County, S.C.

This simple country church sits among the pines in rural Clarendon County, S.C. Kingstree photographer Linda W. Brown writes, “There is a newer church building across the road, so this particular building may be used for other functions now, but I’m glad that it’s still standing.”

Clarendon County has 34,357 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 population estimate. About half of the county’s residence are white; the other half are black.

More QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

September 7, 2014

Empty porch, Kingstree, S.C.

This chair sits on the porch of a house in the Kingstree, S.C., neighborhood of the photographer, Linda W. Brown. She writes, “Although no one has lived in the house for several years and the house is in serious decline, the chair appears to be waiting for someone to come along and ‘set a spell.'”

Kingstree is the county seat for Williamsburg County, which is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.

About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.

Williamsburg County on Wikipedia.

QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.