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.
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.
Photo taken Jan. 26, 2013, by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.