Hot Time in the Old Town

The Town of Kingstree, FTC, Duke Energy, Sykes, and the Williamsburg County Tourism Board presented the summer's first Kingstree Live event at the depot June 1. The Palmetto Dance Band provided an evening of beach music and oldies with the added attraction that two of the band's members, Hugh and Marianne Odom, are Salters residents. While not too many people took advantage of the music for dancing, old and young alike had a "hot time in the old town" that Friday night.

Bobby and Beth Jonte had the street to themselves as they danced the evening away.

The Palmetto Dance Band

Street dances and outdoor concerts were not a common occurrence in late 19th and early 20th century Kingstree. Which is not to say that Kingstree residents of that time didn't enjoy a good dance. In fact, from newspaper reports of the day, it seems they had far more stamina than we do today.

Both the Wee Nee Club and the Kingstree Social Club often hosted dances, particularly in conjunction with holidays. Most of them were held at the largest hotel in town, most often at the Coleman House in the 1890s–early 1900s, and at the Kellahan Hotel from 1908 forward. However, during the time after the Coleman House closed and before the Kellahan Hotel was built, dances were held on the second floor above the Farmers Supply Company, or at the Thomas Opera House, which was on the second floor of what is now the Alex Chatman Complex.

Bands for these events were varied with the local Mouzon String Band often providing music in the late 1890s. In the early 1900s, both Metz' Orchestra and the First Artillery Band of Charleston often made appearances at Kingstree dances, but at one Easter Hop, music was provided by a piano and violin duo, and the Boston Italian Orchestra, and the American Realty & Auction Company Band also made appearances.

The festivities usually didn't begin until 8 or 9 p.m. and lasted most often until 2:30 the next morning, with refreshments served around midnight. However the 1911 Easter Dance, held at the Kellahan Hotel with the First Artillery Band, didn't break up until dawn.

They were a drawing card, however, for visitors from other towns. So much so, that a letter to the editor of The County Record, published December 7, 1911, suggested, "The people of Kingstree should cooperate with the young men of the town in giving dances. The dance has proven one of Kingstree's greatest and best-paying advertisements in the past, and if the businesses houses would leave a light burning in the stores and banks on these nights when so many visitors are in town, it would enliven things up a bit and make a very favorable impression on visitors–one that they would take home with them."

The 1920s and '30s saw weekly dances at both Boswell's Beach and Wee Nee Beach, but that's a story for another time.

Cornhole competitions were ongoing throughout the evening.

Children and adults could get their faces or their knees painted.

Over the years there were also activities on the streets of Kingstree, mostly in the form of carnivals and circus parades. Some of them were well received by the town; others less so. In December 1908, the Kingstree Fire Department sponsored Smith's Greater Shows. It was widely believed that this was the first true carnival to come to town. Residents were surprised by how large it was and that it carried its own supply of electricity. The County Record noted, "For the first time in its history, Kingstree is lit up with electricity." The carnival also erected an old-fashioned merry-go-round and an ocean-wave carousel on the streets. The fire department received $159.34 as its cut of the proceeds.

On another occasion, they did not fare as well. The St. Louis Amusement Company also promised the "fire laddies" as they were then called, a cut of the proceeds. They did get $90, but the newspaper said there was much grumbling about town that the carnival surely had made more money than that as they had at the last minute raised the price of admission for Friday night. The paper also complained that the carnival left the streets of Kingstree dirtier than they had been in a long time.

On a hot night, shaved ice makes a lot of people happy.

As darkness deepened, the twinkly lights turned the street to fairyland.

On October 22, 1910, John Robinson's four-ring circus brought Kingstree a large crowd. The crowd on hand to witness the 10 a.m. circus parade through the streets of the old town was estimated at 7,000. The circus sold 4,500 tickets for the 2 p.m performance. Robinson's was billed as America's oldest circus, and it had been coming to Kingstree for 50 years by 1910.

From our vantage point, it's hard to realize the impact roller skating had on communities all across the country from the nineteen-teens until the early 1940s. As early as 1916, Kingstree tried to ban children from roller skating on the streets. But parents argued that as skating was such a major part of their children's lives, the prohibition should only apply to downtown streets. 

Apparently, town council realized that skating was here to stay and for several years closed Hampton Avenue from Brooks Street to Main Street every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon so that children could use the street for skating.

This didn't stop children from skating at other times, including well after dark, which gave the town council no end of heartburn. But as young people started holding skating parties, and children''s birthday parties included roller skating on the sidewalk, the council resigned itself to the fact that they could not easily regulate skaters. However, they again tried in 1930 to ban skating after drivers complained that daredevils were swinging on to their cars, leaving the drivers in fear that they were going to run over a skater. 

Keeping time to the music.

But by 1933, skating parties, some sponsored by a ladies circle at the Methodist Church and some by the school PTA, were held on the block of Hampton Avenue from Mill Street to the railroad. The Margaret Speigner Circle sponsored the town's first skating carnival on Feb. 3, 1933, with prizes given for fancy skating by both elementary and high school students. Jane Nesmith won the elementary prize with Charlie Cook taking the high school honors. The town eventually again blocked Hampton on Friday afternoons for children to skate and play marbles. Those Friday afternoon and evenings were some of my own father's favorite memories, as he talked often about the fun he and Matthew Gardner had skating and playing marbles on the blocked-off street with side trips to the town's livery stable on Mill Street to visit the Clydesdales that pulled the town's trash wagon.

If you missed out on the fun at the June 1 Kingstree Live, two more are scheduled this summer. The next will be July 13 and on August 10, there'll be a Back-To-School Blast.