The Center for a Better South
There’s not much business these days at this abandoned store on U.S. Highway 17 outside of McClellanville in the northern, rural part of Charleston County.
[UPDATED, May 1, 2015] | The Center for a Better South is an integral part of the team that put together the successful application for rural counties in the southern part of South Carolina to win a federal Promise Zone designation this week.
“Without the visionary leadership and guidance of the Center for a Better South, the counties in the SouthernCarolina Alliance never would have applied for a federal Promise Zone designation, much less been able to put together the winning application that will change the lives of tens of thousands of people in the southern part of South Carolina,” said Danny Black, president and CEO of the Alliance, an economic development agency that will lead work in the Zone counties. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Center to grow jobs, reduce poverty and make our communities better.”
Better South President Andy Brack, who worked with the Alliance as part of a leadership team to bring together more than 20 organizations to partner on an application for the federal designation, said the Zone designation would make a big difference.
“This is going to change people’s lives,” he said. By being part of a new Promise Zone designations, just over 90,000 people in Allendale, Barnwell, Bamberg, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties will have new tools to be able to tap into existing federal grant dollars and other opportunities.
“It’s a big deal,” Brack said. “South Carolina is only the nation’s second rural Promise Zone and the only one announced today. If the same kinds of things happen here that have happened in the other rural Zone in eastern Kentucky, we should be looking at an infusion of millions of dollars over time to grow jobs, improve the economy, have better schools, get more affordable housing and reduce crime.”
Photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., said she’s not exactly sure what this contraption in a Florence County pasture was used for on the farm. “Personally, I like all the different levels and sizes of wheels.”
Copyrighted photo taken by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Although never incorporated, Salters, S.C., has a town hall,” writes Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown. “Built around 1900 as a project of The Salters Social Club, it hosted community and club meetings and was a venue for school commencements, community plays, dances and suppers.
The social club members bought stock at $10 a share to raise money for its construction. The stock purchases raised $1,000 to build the structure in Williamsburg County, she said.
Copyrighted photo taken by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
These tobacco barns probably date to the middle of the last century and, though not evident in this photograph, the one in the foreground is leaning badly, says VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown.
“The ‘Cracker’ style double-pen farmhouse is the real highlight of the property, though. The owners have done a great job in keeping it authentic and stabilized. See more here.
Tattnall County in eastern Georgia just south of Interstate 16, is home to about 25,000 people, some 24 percent of whom live below the federal poverty line including 33 percent of children. It’s county seat is Reidsville, known as home for one of the state’s toughest prisons.
Copyrighted photo by Brian Brown. All rights reserved.
Many of Brooklet’s historic downtown storefronts have been restored or well maintained and Parker Street continues to be the commercial heart of the town, writes VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown.
Brooklet, home to about 1,400 people, is in Bulloch County, Ga., about nine miles east of Statesboro, which is home to Georgia State University. Bulloch County, located in eastern Georgia county along Interstate 16, is deeply in poverty with 31 percent of residents living below the federal poverty line. The county, which has a median household income of $33,902, is home to 72,694 people (2012), two thirds of whom are white.
Copyrighted photo by Brian Brown. All rights reserved.
This old store is diagonally across the Old Ninety Six Indian Trail from Jackson Hole in the western part of South Carolina. New Holland Crossroads in rural Aiken County, S.C., looks pretty much like a ghost town these days, said photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C.
Aiken County, longtime home of the federal Savannah River Site, is not a Southern Crescent county but it is adjacent to impoverished Barnwell and Orangeburg counties. Rural areas in Aiken County look much like those in the Crescent.
Copyrighted photo taken March 21, 2015, by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown observes there are still plenty of working farms in rural South Carolina. These barns are part of a farm in Clarendon County.
Copyrighted photo. All rights reserved.
This mural, depicting the hand-harvesting of tobacco and located on Main Street in downtown Hemingway, S.C., is a reminder of the Williamsburg County town’s past as a major tobacco center.
Copyrighted Jan. 2015 photo by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Built in 1924, the Salters Brick School in Williamsburg County, S.C., served grades 1-11 when it opened in 1925 with 100 students, photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree writes. “After it was consolidated with a larger school, the building was used from the late 1970s to the early 1990s as the hub for Black River Glads, a wholesale gladiolas farming and sales operation. The building is currently for sale.”
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.