Heller House Inn Welcomes Guests

One of Kingstree's oldest homes has recently taken on a new role in the community as a bed and breakfast. Pam and Darren Tisdale bought what has long been known as the Heller House, located at 405 N. Academy Street, from Robert and Dottie Arnette in October 2010. Now that they're "empty-nesters," they've decided they can fill a need in the community by offering three of their bedrooms to overnight guests. The Heller House Inn officially opened for business on November 1, 2017.

The Heller House Inn at 405 N. Academy Street in Kingstree.

Innkeepers Pam and Darren Tisdale.

Photo provided by Pam Tisdale

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1995. According to the National Register application, the core of the house was a one-story cottage believed to have been built around 1845. From 1863 until 1881, it served as parsonage for the Kingstree Methodist Church. It changed hands a number of times before Caroline Simons Heller bought it in 1890 for $728. By 1895, she and her husband M.F. Heller had enlarged it into the two-story house we know today.

Caroline Simons Heller

One of Kingstree's early baseball teams. Mike Heller is on the far left of the top row.

Both photos taken from Remembering Kingstree.

Mike and Carrie Heller were an interesting couple. She grew up in Charleston and came to Kingstree to teach school in 1880. The census that year shows her boarding with Mary Lesesne Porter, whose garden was one that we looked at in last week's post. When Carrie Simons moved to Kingstree, she was the only Episcopalian in town. To provide a place for her to worship, she almost single-handedly founded St. Alban's Episcopal Church. Although her husband remained a ruling elder at Williamsburg Presbyterian, he, along with P.B. Thorn, built the church that we know today as St. Alban's. Carrie Heller was an accomplished musician and she often used her talents to put on musical events to raise money for the church.

St. Alban's Episcopal Church as it looks today,

Mike Heller's father Philip was a German, who, according to Conrad Constine, still had a heavy accent after many years of living in Kingstree. Philip Heller was one of two white Republicans in town in the 1870s and served as the Williamsburg County Treasurer during Reconstruction. Mike Heller owned and operated a very successful sales and livery stable on Academy Street in Kingstree for many years. He also owned a similar operation in Georgetown, managed by his nephew, Emile Arrowsmith. Mr. Heller had a bit of a reputation as a rogue. His livery stable was known locally as the "Loafers' Paradise." There are tales of 24-hour poker games taking place there, and a number of women in town would not walk down Academy Street because the men sitting in front of the stable ogled them. Mr. Heller took numerous trips to the west to buy unbroken horses and mules. The livestock would arrive on the train and would be led in a wild run down Academy Street to the livery stable.

The side yard of the Heller House Inn today.

According to a Bessie Britton column published in The County Record in 1970, Carrie Heller kept six parrots in an enclosure in the yard of the house. Local children took great pleasure in tormenting the parrots by making hissing noises in their presence. This drove the parrots crazy, and as the children giggled, the parrots would call out in unison for "Miss Carrie," who would come running with her broom in hand to chase away whatever was disturbing the birds. Bessie Britton remembered feeling somewhat ashamed for tormenting the birds because Mrs. Heller often gave the children lemonade and cookies. Carrie Heller also owned a large flock of geese which, along with several other flocks, had the run of the town.

The dining room of the Heller House Inn.

Tradition says that the Hellers added the dining room to the house when the Baptist Church across the street was about to build a new sanctuary. He moved the old sanctuary, or at least a part of it, and attached it to his existing house. The carbide gaselier hanging over the table was electrified later but the Hellers may have had the earliest inside gas lighting in town. Mike and Carrie Heller often entertained, and according to The County Record, their invitations encouraged their friends to "come early and stay late."

A residence which now faces Brooks Street was the original detached kitchen for the Heller House. After M.F. Heller's sister inherited the house at his death in 1939, she had the kitchen moved closer to Brooks Street where it was converted into a small house.

This small house facing Brooks Street was the original detached kitchen for the Heller House. 

You can see the chimneys of the Heller House on the right side of the photo.

Although both the Hellers' children died in infancy, the big house was never empty. The 1920 census shows a number of boarders, including Fitzhugh Lee, Blackwell McKenzie, Ebbie Gillis, Allan Sauls, and Melvin Rogers. By 1930, several nieces, nephews, and sisters-in-law filled the bedrooms of the home.

The River Room at the Heller House Inn.

The Palmetto Room.

The King's Room.

The Tisdales hope their guests at the Heller House Inn, located just two blocks north of Kingstree's downtown historic district–also on the National Register–will find Shabbat, or "rest" within the walls of their home, which is the oldest in the original city limits of Kingstree. Visit the Heller House Inn on Facebook or at its website at https://www.hellerhousebandb.com. 

A welcoming front porch greets visitors to the Heller House Inn.

The Historic Register application for the house notes that it is "reflective of different uses over time and the changing needs of its occupants." In turning it into a bed and breakfast, the Tisdales continue that trend. It just goes to show that neither houses nor people are ever too old to embark upon exciting new adventures.

A Kingstree Spring–Then and Now

At last month's Main Street public meetings, architect Randy Wilson asked participants to imagine Kingstree as a person. Is that person male or female? What are his/her characteristics? Overwhelmingly both groups declared Kingstree to be male. Mr. Kingstree is a sportsman, loves hunting and fishing, and eats lots of barbecue and pileau. According to some, he's not particularly neat and is more than a little rough around the edges.

While I understand where much of this imagery comes from, I kept silent that day because I've always seen Kingstree as a woman, particularly this time of year with its profusion of blooming daffodils, massed banks of colorful azaleas and dogwoods, and the sweet scent of wisteria, with honeysuckle, gardenia, and magnolia yet to come. Add to that the river winding languidly at the edge of town, and Kingstree, to me, is a Southern belle–a steel magnolia, maybe–but a Southern belle, nonetheless.

All photos taken from 2015-2018 on various streets in Kingstree.

Photos by Linda Brown

The steel magnolia image was reinforced last week when I ran across several January 1932 articles detailing another public meeting held in Kingstree. Kingstree was seriously feeling the effects of the Depression, with the last bank having recently closed. The public meeting was called to discuss "economies in government," with suggestions for reducing water and light bills, as well as taxes and salaries.

Cornelia Gamble, described in The State newspaper as a prominent leader in civic and social affairs,  but who could have just as easily been described as a steel magnolia, wasn't shy in voicing her opinion. "Men have got us in the mess we are now in," she was quoted as saying, "and if they can't get us out, let them step aside and let the women pull them out of their difficulties. They have acted like babies, and they can now get back in their cradles and 'the hand that rocks the cradle' will show them the way out. Women know how to economize, and when it comes to reducing salaries, let me say that my salary has been cut from pork to chitterlings."

Women had long been in the forefront of bringing progress to Kingstree. In the early 1900s, they formed a Civic League that, often using money from their own pockets, began a major beautification effort downtown, particularly around the courthouse and the depot. They often raised money through "hot suppers" for projects ranging from paying the preacher's salary, to buying a piano for the school, to raising money to better equip the local baseball team. Many of these women were also responsible for cultivating flower gardens that were the pride of Kingstree. No doubt just as much credit should go to a number of unnamed black male gardeners, who must have worked tirelessly throughout the long, hot summers keeping those gardens in shape.

In an April 14, 1935, article, Laura C. Hemingway, local correspondent for the News & Courier, described the most prominent flower gardens then in existence in Kingstree. Sadly, none of them now exists, and only one of the houses mentioned still stands. 

She noted that one of the oldest gardens then in existence was begun before the Civil War by Mary Gewinner, mother of Mary Jacobs, whose son and daughter still lived in the house, located where Hardee's is today. In spring, masses of blooming bulbs, many planted by Mrs. Gewinner, carpeted this garden. The Gewinner/Jacobs house was built end to the street and faced the gardens, laid out in "prim beds and trim walks." Laura Hemingway remembered that for many years a pergola had extended from the porch into the garden, and "over this roses rioted through the summer." By 1935, however, the centerpiece of the garden was its lily pool.

On the corner of Mill and Jackson streets, Minnie Porter's garden was created by her mother, Mary Lesesne Porter. This house is the only one Laura Hemingway wrote about that remains standing. Today it is home to Personal Touch Beauty & Barber Complex. In 1935, one of the largest magnolia trees in the state stood in the backyard, towering 75 feet in the air. Two of Mary Porter's sons, stationed on James Island during the Civil War, sent three magnolia trees to her by way of a friend. The giant in the backyard was the only survivor of the three although it is now only a distant memory.

Laura Hemingway writes, "In this garden are five palmettos, for a long while the only palmettos here." There are still five palmettos in the yard. Could several that are much taller than the others be the original trees?

Five palmetto trees still stand in the yard of the Porter/Nelson house,

now Personal Touch Beauty & Barber Complex

Also described from this garden were a large tea olive and many old-fashioned, pure-white daffodils, along with masses of yellow jonquils, white narcissus, tritellias, and violets. There is still a profusion of tritellias, also known as triplet lilies, blooming today throughout the yard and bordering the sidewalk on Jackson Street. The largest azalea in Kingstree was found there, as well as a giant boxwood, oleanders, dahlias, altheas, lilies and other old-fashioned flowers.

Tritellia, or triplet lilies, bloom in profusion in the yard 

of the old Porter house and down Jackson Street.

The Nelson House, known in the 1930s as the Colonial Inn, sat where the fruit stand is today on the corner of Main and Academy streets, its gardens planted by Edith Nelson. Laura Hemingway described them as "a bright spot in the heart of the business section of the town." Interestingly, in 1935, fruit stands had recently been added to the gardens as "modern progress is encroaching." This garden boasted several large Japanese magnolias, bringing a touch of bright color to early spring in downtown Kingstree. Huge rose bushes, tended with care by Tena Nelson in 1935, bloomed all year round.

Another lovely garden once grew on the site of the old elementary school on Academy Street. The pride and joy of the late Lou Gilland, "an aged wisteria vine for many years covered a summer house and served as a beacon of spring for the entire community." The summer house was on a slight incline, making it visible from all over the area.

The late Martha Scott's garden on Railroard Avenue was once a showplace, but by 1935, according to Laura Hemingway, Northern sportsmen who wintered here had raided the garden, removing huge camellias and evergreens to grace their own gardens. The Scott gardens, originally planted by Mrs. Scott's ancestors, Dr. and Mrs. John Brockinton, once sported trillium brought here from Scotland when Kingstree was first settled.

Also on Railroad Avenue was once the garden belonging to the late Julia Kennedy. She was the first to grow azaleas here. The original plants reached great size, and she gave numerous cuttings from them to friends, which were responsible for the large numbers of azaleas seen in the yards of many of Kingstree's older homes. Mrs. Kennedy's children had, by 1935, transplanted many of the plants from her garden to their own in remembrance of their mother's love for flowers.

Both the Scott and Kennedy houses were torn down long ago, but the gardens must have been a pleasant sight for many years for passengers riding through town on the train.

Although these formal gardens are a thing of the past, Spring is still one of the loveliest times of year, in which color and scent mingle to make Miss Kingstree memorable to anyone who visits her, or lives with her every day for that matter.

TV Commercial to Feature Kingstree Businesses

Today is a big day in Kingstree. Cameras are rolling at six area businesses, filming footage for two commercials–three businesses on each commercial–which when finished will air 168 times a week for six months on yet to be determined channels that are part of FTC's Vision-TV.

The six businesses include Bee Hive Gifts, The Paisley Pearl, and Holt's Jewelry & China on Academy Street; Personalize It on Mill Street; Fancy Pants on Main; and Williamsburg Feed & Tack on Thurgood Marshall Highway.

Bee Hive Gifts at 110 N. Academy St. advertises beautiful gifts at a sweet price.

The Paisley Pearl, 136 N. Academy, offers women's clothing at reasonable prices.

Find jewelry, watches, china, gifts, and jewelry repair at Holt's Jewelry & China, 139 N. Academy St.

After William Freeman, the Director of Main Street, Kingstree, kept seeing a similar ad promoting businesses in Bishopville, he wondered if local businesses would be interested in pursuing that avenue for marketing themselves. After surveying several businesses and finding there was interest, he contacted FTC and Prime Media to work our arrangements. The businesses will cover half the cost of the advertising with the Town of Kingstree covering the other half from accommodations tax monies which the town can spend only on things that promote tourism in the area. 

Personalize It, 107 E. Mill St, offers Southern styles with a modern-day twist

from apparel to monogrammed gifts.

William also contacted officials in Bishopville to get their feedback on how advertising in this way has affected their businesses. They told him it had done wonderful things for them and that they were pleased with the return they'd seen from investing in television advertising.

Fancy Pants on Main, 110 E. Main St., has ladies' clothing, handbags, and some jewelry.

William says the six businesses involved have agreed to keep track of how their customers learned of them during the six months the ad runs. If they see an increase in business, the town will consider another six months of advertising and invite other businesses to participate. FTC will also provide its analysis of market reach.

Williamsburg Feed & Tack, 2153 Thurgood Marshall Highway, 

carries a wide variety of animal feed, clothing, and boots in brand names.

Advertising swirls around us constantly in our day-to-day lives, and it's hard to imagine how our ancestors who ran businesses set themselves apart from others who ran similar businesses. Word-of-mouth from satisfied customers has always been, and still is, one of the most potent tools any business has at its disposal. Back in the early 1900s, there was newspaper advertising, but beyond that shopkeepers had to rely on some novel approaches to draw customers to their goods.

You might think that local merchants had a more-or-less captive clientele in those horse-and-buggy days before cars and better roads made it easy to travel out of town to shop. You would be wrong. Long before the first cars ever came to the area, local ladies would hop on the train to Charleston, carrying with them empty trunks to fill with the goods they planned to buy. Sometimes they'd spent the night in the city, but just as often, they'd return on the evening train with their trunks full.

Twice a year in Kingstree in the early 1900s, the stores selling general merchandise held big open houses to showcase the latest styles, particularly in ladies' hats. The Spring open houses were especially elaborate as this was the time for Easter fashions and the proverbial Easter bonnet.

In March, 1910, The County Record noted in a rare fashion critique, "The prevailing style seems to run to size, and some of the pattern hats are simply huge." That spring, Anne Marcus was displaying a variety of tailored hats at S. Marcus on Main Street, while Gale & Gale, a Main Street shop devoted solely to ladies' millinery, was extremely busy showing off their many designs. One of the Misses Gale, however, took time from waiting on customers to answer a question from the newspaper. She was asked about the "Chantecler" style which was extremely popular that spring. She replied that she endeavored to avoid anything so extreme as wearing a rooster on one's head, as was typical of the Chantecler.

S. Marcus ad from the March 17, 1910, issue of The County Record.

Gale & Gale's advertisement from the same issue of The County Record.

Mamie Shafer, the milliner at Kingstree Dry Goods, had to bring in several assistants for the open house to help her show the many pattern hats she had for sale.

Kingstree Dry Goods' 1910 Spring Opening was on the same two days as other merchants.

One name missing from the 1910 open houses was that of Sadie Eron, who had capably run the store of J.S. Eron, ever since her husband's untimely death, and was usually much involved in the ladies' hat extravaganzas. Sadie, who by the way was Isadore Goldstein's older sister, had just married David Silverman of Atlanta, and was settling into her new life there.

William Freeman and the local merchants hope the television spots will attract new customers from other areas to Kingstree and maybe remind some local residents that downtown Kingstree's shops can compete favorably with those of larger towns.

Photos by Linda Brown

CONGRATULATIONS to Main Street, Kingstree, for receiving the HomeTown Chamber's Image Award at the annual chamber banquet last week.

REQUEST: I'm interested in finding out if anyone has pictures of the following that they would share with us: the Louis Jacobs house and/or gardens once located where Hardee's is now. Any of the gardens adjoining the Nelson House on the corner of Main and Academy where the fruit stand is now. Any of the Gilland house where the old elementary school is or any of either of the Singleton houses--one was behind the Gilland home; the other was on property that is now part of Kingstree United Methodist Church's parking lot. Any of the homes and/or gardens of Dr. D.S. Scott and W.H. Kennedy that were on Railroad Avenue. If you have photos and would be willing to share, leave a comment at the bottom of this post with an email address or phone number. Your address and phone number won't be posted, but I will get back to you. Thanks.

Room for Improvement

Last week we looked at postcard-worthy images of Kingstree. Today's pictures won't be quite so lovely. It's time to look at those things in need of improvement. At the recent Main Street meetings, architect Randy Wilson asked residents to "be honest, but gentle," in assessing those things in Kingstree that need improving, as well as anything the town might be better off without. Here are a few of the topics residents brought up.

There was strong consensus that many of the commercial buildings in downtown Kingstree need a lot more love and attention than they've gotten in the past. Not only are some of the buildings run down,  but a number also lack color and contrast to catch the eye, while others have boarded up second-story windows which send a subtle message.

Built in late 1906, early 1907, this office on South Academy Street

was built as the law offices of Gilland & Gilland.

These boarded up arched windows would be even more elegant if they were restored.

The building in the center of the photo was also built in 1906 for the Bank of Williamsburg.

I'm not singling these buildings out. They are just examples of some of the superb architecture existing in Kingstree that has not always been used to its best advantage. And, too, I'm drawn to arches, whether in fanlights or entranceways, so these examples have a personal impact on me.

Also, I know that in January 1907, when construction of Gilland & Gilland's law office was nearing completion, The County Record noted that when it was complete, it would be "the neatest, prettiest office building in Kingstree."

Another thing most members of the groups agreed upon was that they'd like to see Main Street return to a two-lane roadway instead of today's broad, four-lane thoroughfare that encourages driving perhaps a bit faster than is good for the heart of the community. This would also bring back angled parking and provide more sidewalk space for landscaping.

This 1940 view of Main Street was no doubt taken on a Saturday,

then the busiest day of the week. The street was then two-lane with 

angled parking on either side of both lanes.

Photo courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

Main Street on an early Saturday morning in 2016 has a totally different feel.

While not discussed at the public meetings, litter was a topic of conversation at the smaller tourism and hospitality get-together. Litter appears to be a growing problem in all areas of Kingstree, both commercial and residential. It shows a basic lack of pride in the community, and its presence makes it hard for residents to take pride in the community.

It is, however, not a new problem. In June, 1908, Conrad Constine wrote a scathing letter to the editor of The County Record, detailing the amount of garbage dumped on the causeway just beyond the Main Street bridge. The headline on this letter was, "A Menace to the Health of the Town." In 1911, he again wrote about litter, this time on downtown streets." He began, "I would like to mention something that might save someone the misfortune of a fall, a severe bruise, or a broken arm if the peelings of apples and the skins of bananas are kept off the streets of this town. It was shocking to see then this Sabbath morning on God's holy day, littered up and down–better say messed up–especially in front of where fruit is sold. Mr. Thompson, I think the oldest and a useful gentleman in town, passed me going to the post office this morning and fell hard on the cement sidewalk by stepping on a banana peel."

Litter takes many forms, including bottles tossed from car windows,

household goods, which somehow attract more litter,

articles of clothing,

And, yes, there are still banana peels on our sidewalks.

All these photographs were taken within the last year.

Many residents bemoaned the lack of cultural and recreational activities in town. Participants in both meeting want to see theatrical performances, both live theater and movies, here. Others would like places to skate or bowl. Kingstree has not always been without live theater, both locally produced and brought in from outside.

In a 1933 letter to Laura Cromer Hemingway, Dr. Napoleon G. Gewinner of Macon, GA, expounded on a theater troupe he was a part of as a young man living in Kingstree in the mid-1870s. The group, which billed itself as Friends of Temperance, put on plays in the courtroom, using jury rooms as dressing rooms. Dr. Gewinner remembered a "tramp painter," who had theatrical experience was also living in Kingstree and built sets, came up with curtains, and arranged footlights for their productions. "We had as pretty stage fixtures as one would want," Dr. Gewinner wrote. He said the troupe was often asked to perform in neighboring areas, which they sometimes did, although it was expensive for them, as the actors traveled by horse and buggy, with their props transported by horse and wagon. However, he noted that the box office from their performances often brought in $800 to $1,000, which in 2018 currency would amount to $17,500-$21,800.

Although the photograph on this postcard is much later than 1875,

the courthouse shown in the photo looks more like it did then than it does now.

Courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Society

Live theater became standard fare for residents of Kingstree when in March 1908, the Thomas Opera House opened for business. Built for the town by F.C. Thomas of Manning, the opera house was on the second floor, closest to Jackson Street, of what is now the Alex Chatman Complex. Some 300 persons, many of whom had come from outlying areas of the county and neighboring counties, attended the grand opening on March 19, which showcased The Beggar Price Opera Company's performance of the Turkish opera Said Pasha. In years to come the opera house hosted light opera, plays, meetings, and even wrestling matches.

The name Thomas can still be seen on the building that housed the Thomas Opera House.

Photos by Linda Brown unless otherwise noted

There is a Maya Angelou quote that applies very well to the situation in which Kingstree residents now find themselves:  No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place. In cataloguing both the things that make us proud as well as the things that need improvement, we have made a start in gathering that knowledge.