Three Priorities

The Main Street Kingstree Committee chose three priorities to begin its journey toward revitalizing the town at a meeting June 7. Beppie Legrand, Main Street, South Carolina Manager, who will retire at the end of the month, led the discussion, assisted by her successor Jenny Boulware. The committee believes the town can meet one of the goals within a year. Another goal will require an ongoing commitment, while the third will need a number of years to bring to fruition.

The large, multi-year priority is working to position Black River to "become one of the South's premier destinations for outdoor recreation." Beppie reiterated a recommendation from the baseline assessment that the town pursue a master plan for integrating the river into the fabric of downtown Kingstree. The committee came up with a list of activities and businesses that it would like to see promoted for the river, including fishing, duck hunting, a bait and tackle shop, kayaking, picnicking, more access points in or near town, cruises on the river, quiet places for writing and reflection, a campground, nature trail, paddle boats, a restaurant that fronts on the river, wildlife education associated with the river, and river guides for tourists who might want to explore the river but are uneasy about going it alone.

While discussing the river, the committee agreed that the biggest drawback is the periodic flooding which shuts down Gilland Park and acts as a deterrent to entrepreneurs who might consider a business associated with the river. Cleaning and dredging the river could help with the flooding, but this has not been a priority for the Army Corps of Engineers, although the Corps has recently announced that it will clean out the canal downtown at no cost to the Town of Kingstree. However, Williamsburg County does have money that comes from gas tax, prorated to counties based on the number of boats registered with the state, that is earmarked for cleaning up water resources. Mayor Darren Tisdale said he would speak with county officials about the possibility of using this money as a start to the project.

We've all wondered, I'm sure, how the town of Kingstree grew up on the banks of Black River without more fully developing the river's potential. The flooding, which has long occurred, probably had much to do with that. Back in the 1890s, the road,  now Highway 52/261 over the swamp, was flooded for an extended period, making it impassable, and causing the citizens of Greeleyville to lobby for a train from there to Lane to Kingstree, or they would consider leaving Williamsburg County for Clarendon as it was difficult for them to get to the county seat to pay their taxes.

But there were those who promoted the river and made a living from it. Conrad Constine hauled timber down the river on his boats, The Mercedes, The Wanderer, and The Mary Swann. He also carried many groups of picnickers and sight-seers both up and down the river, often to the railroad trestle or to the picnic grounds at the Lower Bridge. The Mercedes was described in The County Record in April 1907 as a 32-foot long, 8-foot wide flatboat with a 10 horsepower motor mounted to it. Its inaugural trip was on April 25, 1907, when Constine carried 27 people to the railroad trestle and back. The Williamsburgh Museum has compiled his letters to the editor of the newspaper into a book: Poor Conrad: Tales from a River Rat, which it offers for sale.

And because we never saw it, we often tend to forget that Philip Boone Thorn owned and operated his Black River Cypress Mill on the river where the Mill Street landing is today. In fact, Mill Street owes its name to this enterprise. In 1897, the mill contained 12,030 feet of floor space and the lumberyard occupied two acres. Two engines were operating, and he had large boilers fitted with blowers, enabling him to use the sawdust generated from the mill as fuel for the engines. He was using a 60-inch circular saw, as well as a smaller saw, and had a 66-inch blade on order. The mill cut 12,000-15,000 feet of lumber a day and turned out 12,000 to 18,000 cypress shingles a day. In October 1897, he had 4,000 logs in what the townspeople called the "old river" and which he used as a log pen.

The 1908 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Thorn's Mill. 

Note that Longstreet was then Buzzard's Roost.

The possibility of making the river navigable by large boats all the way from Kingstree to Georgetown intrigued Kingstree Hardware manager W.H. Carr. This became one of Carr's pet projects as he envisioned steamboats navigating the river as far as the Main Street bridge. He attended at least one conference in Washington and finally persuaded the government to send a civil engineer to look at the feasibility of dredging the river. The report nixed the idea, stating that the river had too many twists and bends in it to make this a profitable venture.

The Main Street Committee's priority that carries an ongoing commitment is to seek permission from the owners of empty downtown buildings to allow the committee to clean the windows and spruce up around the fronts of the building by sweeping up debris and attempting to add a little "sparkle and shine" to downtown.

This, too, has been an area of concern for many, many years. Way back in 1912, the Civic League discussed with newly-elected Mayor L. Percy Kinder the importance of enforcing an ordinance that required merchants to be responsible for their premises and the sidewalks in front of them. The ladies of Kingstree had formed the Civic League in an attempt to help beautify the town and make it a place where people wanted to shop and live. Exasperated that the town seemed unable to keep the streets clean, they finally installed zinc trash cans with covers and hired a man to clean the streets on a regular basis. They just as quickly fired him when he didn't work to their standards, noting that they would not squander the league's resources to pay for substandard work, especially when it was work for which the town should be responsible.

The third priority, which the committee believes can be accomplished within the next year is having a colorful mural painted on a wall of one of the buildings downtown. The committee has on several occasions discussed this possibility, and while neither the subject matter nor the location has been nailed down, the project has been enthusiastically embraced by committee members. There are several walls in the downtown area which could easily showcase such a mural. This, too, is not a new idea. Many will remember the Francis Marion mural, designed by the late Peggy McGill, and painted by locals on the side of the old Cornerstone building on Mill Street. Once the location and subject matter for the new mural are decided and an artist is selected, there will be fundraising efforts to raise money to make this a reality.

New Main Street, South Carolina, Manager Jenny Boulware will soon begin meeting with four committees, formed from the initial committee. All of these committees–organization, economic vitality, promotion, and design–will work on parts of the three priorities to begin setting them in motion. Architect Randy Wilson will also work with the design committee. The priorities are not set in stone and can be changed and tweaked as the town moves forward with its plans.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

Thursday, June 21: The Paisley Pearl, 136 North Academy Street, turns three and celebrates with everything in the store 20-percent off from 10-6:30.

Saturday, June 23:  Photographer Bud Hill and poet Billy Baldwin will sign and talk about their new book, Carolina Rambling: A Visual and Poetical Tour, at the Williamsburgh Museum, 135 Hampton Avenue. No admission charge.

Thursday, June 28:  Take a "Sweet Summer Stroll" through downtown Kingstree from 5-8 p.m. Lucky shoppers will win cash and gift prizes. Seven downtown businesses are participating plus Williamsburg Feed and Tack.