South Carolina – Page 19 – Building a better South

December 20, 2013December 20, 2013

Old bank, Trio, S.C.

Trio (pronounced Try-o) was once a thriving community in southern Williamsburg County founded by the three Bryan brothers, writes retired editor Linda W. Brown of Kingstree. The area’s main industries were lumber, turpentine and agriculture.

“The Bank of Trio is long gone, but the building still remains as a reminder of more prosperous days,” she says. In the building’s later years, it housed a general store (Rowell’s) and a post office. These days the “post office” is a group of mailboxes by the side of the road.

Just under 34,000 people live in Williamsburg County, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. 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.

December 16, 2013December 16, 2013

Old grocery store, Poplar Hill, S.C.

Old grocery store, Williamsburg County, S.C.

This old 76 gas station was known as Britton’s Grocery many years ago, writes retired editor Linda W. Brown of Kingstree. It’s located in the Poplar Hill area of Williamsburg County.

December 14, 2013December 14, 2013

Leaning shed, Clarendon County, S.C.

Retired editor Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., spied this leaning shed and rusty equipment in the countryside of Clarendon County near Davis Station. Both, she said, “speak to the condition of small farms in rural communities in 2013.” See another picture from the area.

Clarendon County, split in half by Interstate 95, had almost 21 percent of residents living in poverty, according to the 2010 Census.

Quick facts about Clarendon County from the U.S. Census

December 10, 2013December 10, 2013

Tumbling down, Indiantown, S.C.

Vines reclaim old store, Indiantown, S.C.

It must be the week of vines. Earlier this week, we posted a South Carolina photo by Linda W. Brown of a bushy tobacco barn in Clarendon County. Now she turns her lens on her home county, Williamsburg County, where she found vines eating up an old rural grocery store.

“I believe this old grocery store was known as Owens’ Grocery,” Linda wrote in October. “It’s on S.C. Highway 261 between Kingstree and Hemingway in the Indiantown community. It’s been closed for many years, although the woman who ran the store died just last week.

“Now, it seems to be a dumping ground for people’s trash. This was also taken on January 26 of this this year. Winter is the only time you can actually see any of the building. During the summer the vines completely cover it.”

December 8, 2013December 8, 2013

Bushy roof, Clarendon County, S.C.

Retired editor Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., snapped a photo of this old tobacco barn with a bushy roof along S.C. Highway 261 just outside Manning in Clarendon County. “It doesn’t show in the picture,” she writes, “but there is a fairly new fiberglass basketball goal right in front of the old tobacco barn. Changing times, changing lives.”

Clarendon County, split in half by Interstate 95, had almost 21 percent of residents living in poverty, according to the 2010 Census.

Quick facts about Clarendon County from the U.S. Census

December 6, 2013November 16, 2014

Decaying ball field, Timmonsville, S.C.

Abandoned ball field, Timmonsville, S.C.

This abandoned baseball field where wood is warping and steel stands are rusting seems reflective of how tired Timmonsville, S.C. seems. Per capita income for the town was $11,714 in 2000. In 2010, the town had 2,315 people. Ten years later, it had grown by five people.

Timmonsville’s poverty rate was 26.6 percent in 2000, much higher than its home county, Florence, which had 19.4 percent poverty in 2010. Florence, just a few miles away from Timmonsville, is the largest city in the Pee Dee with 37,498 people in 2012. Florence County had 137,948 people, according to a 2012 estimate.

More on Timmonsville from Wikipedia.
QuickFacts about Florence County and the City of Florence.

December 4, 2013December 4, 2013

West Main Street, Timmonsville, S.C.

For every business that is open on West Main Street in the Pee Dee town of Timmonsville, S.C., some six businesses are shuttered, including those pictured above. Open on the lonely street are a church, town hall, furniture shop, small chain general store and a bank. But there were 18 closed businesses along three blocks of the city’s hub street last month.

Fortunately for the community, Honda Motor Company located a facility several years back that builds all-terrain vehicles and personal watercrafts nearby, which helped employment levels. Still, per capita income for the town was $11,714 in 2000. In 2010, the town had 2,315 people. Ten years later, it had grown by five people.

More on Timmonsville from Wikipedia.
QuickFacts about Florence County and the City of Florence.

November 30, 2013November 25, 2013

Convenience store, Estill, S.C.

People across the South often have to shop in convenience stores, such as this one in Estill, S.C., because their rural town doesn’t have a grocery store. Estill, a town of about 2,000 located in rural Hampton County, is lucky to have an IGA store in addition to the Mid-Mart. Towns like Greeleyville, S.C., no longer have a grocery store.

Hampton County, located in the southern part of South Carolina, was home to 21,090 people in 2010, about 4,000 fewer than a century earlier. More. Some 22.6 percent of Hampton County residents live below the poverty line. Hampton’s annual Watermelon Festival is the state’s longest, continually-running festival.

QuickFacts from the U.S. Census

November 12, 2013November 17, 2013

Bottle tree, Williamsburg County, S.C.

Bottle trees are artificial trees found throughout the South. While generally filled with colored bottles, this version outside a rural Williamsburg County home features a nice vase as well as colored plastic bottles — something we’ve never seen on bottle trees.

According to Mississippi artist Stephanie Dwyer, bottle trees have been displayed in the South since the 1700s and are a remnant of African tradition. “Placing colorful bottles on the ends of broken limbs is said to keep evil spirits (or maybe just nosy neighbors) away from the home. As the story goes, the sun’s glimmer through the glass mesmerizes the spirits and traps them in the bottles,” Dwyer’s Web site says.

November 10, 2013November 17, 2013

Single silo, Clarendon County, S.C.

From what photographer and retired editor Linda W. Brown of Kingstree can tell, the area around Davis Station in rural Clarendon County used by be dairy country, “but the broken-down silos show that that is now a thing of the past.”

Clarendon County, split in half by Interstate 95, had almost 21 percent of residents living in poverty, according to the 2010 Census.

Quick facts about Clarendon County from the U.S. Census