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.