The Center for a Better South
You can find storage sheds like this throughout the eastern Carolinas. Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown snapped this shot in November in the New Zion area of Clarendon County.
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown, 2014. All rights reserved.
Photographer Linda W. Brown snapped this holiday scene in her hometown of Kingstree, S.C., the governmental seat of Williamsburg County.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our photos of the Southern Crescent region throughout 2014 and look forward to providing you with more compelling imagery over the next year. Happy holidays!
Photo is copyrighted by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Legendary architect Robert Mills, who designed the Washington Monument, also designed the courthouse in Williamsburg County, S.C. (above). The ground floor of the building, built in 1823, is part of the original structure, writes photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C.
In 2013, the building got a much-needed renovation as part of an extensive capital project made possible by the federal stimulus program. In addition to the courthouse renovation, the county built a new county administration building, a new jail, a new 911 center and a new animal shelter.
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.
Copyrighted photo taken in 2014 by Linda W. Brown All rights reserved.
Pinewood, population 538 in rural Sumter County, S.C., has this old, restored railroad depot, which is similar to ones we’re showcased in the past from Salters, S.C., and Leary, Ga.
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown says this news story from 202 highlights the depot’s restoration.
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 Pinewood.
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Trees shelter a vintage barn in Clarendon County, S.C., off Newman Branch Road.
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.
Photo taken in 2014 by Linda W. Brown. Copyrighted; all rights reserved.
During the autumn, brightly-colored tarps covering huge cotton bales are an important part of the scenery across the rural South. These bales, photographed by Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., are in eastern Clarendon County, S.C.
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.
Photo taken in 2014 by Linda W. Brown. Copyrighted; all rights reserved.
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown spied these old signs along a fence of what she thought seemed to be an abandoned baseball field in rural Clarendon County, S.C.
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.
Photo taken in 2014 by Linda W. Brown. Copyrighted; all rights reserved.
Former editor Linda W. Brown found this old building with fastened green shutters near Workman Crossroads in western Williamsburg County, S.C.
UPDATE: We first ran this picture on Oct. 1, 2013, and offer it today to steer you to a brand new section of the BEST pictures of the Southern Crescent project. Click here and you can find more than 30 of the most compelling images that we’ve offered since we got started more than 18 months ago.
“I’m not sure if this was an old store that had a shed added to it or exactly what its function was,” Brown wrote. “I think it’s a pretty cool old building, whatever its purpose was earlier in its life.”
We wholeheartedly agree. Old buildings like this can be found across the rural South on farmland that has gone fallow and where tenant families moved on a generation or two ago. Or in small towns near railroad tracks that no longer carry trains.
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.
Copyrighted photo taken on Sept. 27, 2013 by Linda W. Brown All rights reserved.
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown admits that this old store in Jamestown in Berkeley County isn’t technically in the Southern Crescent. But the surrounding rural community, buffered by tens of thousands of acres of national forest, certainly does fit the image of the Crescent region with its vintage gas pumps that harken back to a time of country groceries as focal points of communities.
Copyrighted 2014 photo by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Dried sunflower stalks like the field in front an old barn in rural Florence County, S.C., in this photo taken by Kingstree photographer Linda W. Brown.
Florence County had 137,948 people, according to a 2012 Census estimate. Its poverty rate — higher in the rural areas than the county seat of Florence, averaged 19.4 percent in 2010.
Copyrighted photo taken in October 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.