Wee Nee Beach Was Once Kingstree's Community Center

The Town of Kingstree's second Kingstree Live at the Depot this summer attracted a good crowd July 13. Each of these events seems to draw a little bigger crowd, signaling that residents are spreading the word that once a month during the summer we can hear live music while we catch up with our friends and acquaintances, and dance, or play corn hole, or just enjoy being outside among our neighbors.

The Charlie Floyd Band performing at Kingstree Live at the Depot July 13.

These events have the earmarks of becoming a "third place" for Kingstree residents. If you aren't familiar with the term, a "third place" is somewhere people congregate other than work or home. For roughly the 20 years between 1926 and 1946, many Kingstree residents definitely had a "third place." It was called the Wee Nee Beach Pavilion, situated on the banks of Black River at the Main Street Bridge.

Peggy McGill painting of Wee Nee Beach Pavilion from An Artful Life.

Owned and operated by Walter Dennis, the pavilion is first mentioned in newspapers of the mid-1920s as the Wee Nee Beach Swimming Club. Already though, it was the place where local residents held weekly dances, benefit bridge tournaments, school and Sunday school picnics, and garden club meetings, as well as swimming parties. In August 1926 it was the venue for a Water Sports Carnival which was billed as a "gala occasion" and an "unqualified success." A newspaper description noted that the day was clear, with a pleasant breeze. The new concrete bridge over the river was filled with automobiles extending across the river and for several blocks back into town. "Girls in light-colored summer dresses made a pretty picture against the picturesque background of dark green cypress trees and moss-laden birches that grow along the river banks."

Contestants for the event came from as far away as Rock Hill and Gastonia, NC, with spectators coming from Sumter, Lake City, Manning, Greeleyville, and other areas. Men and women, girls and boys, all competed for prizes in swimming races, underwater races, races upstream, and fancy diving.

Postcard showing the Black River bridge with boats and the diving board at Wee Nee Beach.

The June 10, 1928, News & Courier contained an article with this description of Wee Nee Beach: There is hardly an hour during the long days that some of the Kingstree people may not be seen enjoying the waters of Black River. Every afternoon, the bend at the Wee Nee Beach Clubhouse is filled with swimmers. The old flats have been brought out again and with various dive boards and slides there is fun aplenty for the water lovers. The sound of the motor boats can be heard from the residence sections of the town as the young people glide along the glass-like surface of the black waters. It is altogether a pleasant loafing spot for those not inclined toward water sports. The willows that overhang the smooth black water are reflected therein, and overhead now and then may be seen a waterbird that catches a glint of the ruddy sunsets on his underwings. In the shallow waters around the edge, the tiny tots love to wade and splash to their hearts' content.

On July 19, 1928, The Charleston Evening Post noted, "Every afternoon the Wee Nee Beach, situated at the Kingstree bridge, is the scene of a great deal of beautiful diving and swimming. Diving boards, a big and little flat for the amusement of swimmers and for resting after a hard pull, are part of the apparatus that makes the place attractive. Whether the weather is fair or rainy, Black River furnishes daily amusement and recreation for the young people of Kingstree, so that the town had many of the attractions of a summer resort."

A scene from the July 13 Kingstree Live at the Depot.

But it was not all smooth swimming for the club in the late 1920s. In September 1928, the waters of Black River were extremely high. On September 9, the News & Courier reported, "Not since the flood of 1916 has Black River been at such flood tide. The Wee Nee Beach Clubhouse is surrounded by water, but the water lovers still gather there for their sports in spite of the fact that that springboard had been torn loose from the high pier and washed away, and the flat in the midst of such a swift current that it is well nigh impossible to swim to it." So determined were the young people to have their regular Friday dance that they built a bridge to the clubhouse so the dancers could reach it, even though Walter Dennis had just killed a large rattlesnake with 11 rattles and a button headed for the safety of the clubhouse. The dance went on, but matters were about to get worse.

On September 17, 1928, a hurricane made its way through the area, dumping more water in the already full river. Black River reached 17 feet, seven inches, a new record, rising three feet from Tuesday to Wednesday and an additional three feet from Wednesday to Thursday. College students were still able to reach the pavilion over the makeshift bridge Wednesday night, where they held a "Farewell Dance." By Thursday morning the verandas of the pavilion were inundated with water and the flood was pouring through the windows to cover the dance floor. By Friday, the Wee Nee Beach pavilion was completely inundated. 

However, it didn't take long after the waters receded for Walter Dennis to make repairs. Eleanor Foxworth's Halloween-themed eighth birthday party was held at the pavilion on Friday, October 26.

Black River during the October 2015 flood taken near the area where the pavilion once stood.

The dances and picnics and parties continued, and on April 11, 1929, The News & Courier again described the pavilion. "Those who tire of the water find recreation within the Wee Nee Clubhouse overlooking the river. This spot is always cool and inviting. It is rustic in detail and so blends in with its natural setting. The wide verandas down the front and west sides are ideal 'cooling' spots for the more elderly of afternoons. In fact the Wee Nee Club and the river is (sic) a community center of summer afternoons."

And in August, the same paper noted, "The Wee Nee Beach Club is providing a popular place for a wide range in this section. Hardly a day passes that a party from a neighboring town does not assemble for a picnic under the shade trees along the river's bank or a swim in the black waters of the river. The wide porches around the club that overhang the water are favorite gathering places for the people of the town and those from more distant points. Every evening the young people dance in the large club room."

The 1930s ushered in more fun at the pavilion despite grim news of the Great Depression. Regular dances saw bands coming to Kingstree from Florence, Charleston, or Columbia, including Jack Delmar and his Orchestra, the Carolina Gamecock Orchestra, and Doc Banks and his Pullman Porters. The Black Cat Orchestra, a group composed of Kingstree High School students, performed regularly, particularly at the regular Wednesday-night high school dances.

July 1937 ad in the Florence Morning News.

The Kingstree-Lake City cotillion, known as the King-City Cotillion, often held its events at the pavilion. In February 1931, the Christmas-seal committee sponsored a benefit bridge tournament in which over 100 women from every part of the county participated. Kingstree merchants donated both the prizes and the refreshments. And on some Sundays, the African-American Baptist Church in town used the beach to access the river for its baptisms.

On October 25, 1932, disaster struck the Wee Nee Beach Pavilion once again. At 1:30 a.m., the Kingstree Fire Department received a call that the building was on fire. It was already fully involved by the time the KFD was alerted and little could be done. Firemen did save the Dennis' house next door from burning, although it was scorched by the flames. The Florence Morning News noted that "The Wee Nee Beach Pavilion stood near the river bridge at Kingstree and was a great asset to the community."

The Dennises began rebuilding the pavilion shortly after the fire from the same plans as the original clubhouse. It was completed in time for the traditional New Year's Eve dance to be held there. In June 1934, the News & Courier noted that Walter Dennis was making more improvements to the area. He had built a rustic bridge across the little creek that divided the river from a slightly elevated island and placed picnic tables on the island. "Nearby he is building a natural park that will be beautified with native plants as well as cultivated ones." He had planted the riverbank with grass and flowers that were bright with color, and he had placed seating on the white-sand beach.

In July 1935, it was noted that the river was completely dry, and no one was able to swim that summer, but the dances continued as if nothing was out of the ordinary. But by 1936, swimming returned with picnickers coming from far and near, including businesses from Florence who held their annual picnics at Wee Nee Beach.

Dancing at Kingstree Live, July 2013.

As the drumbeats of war grew louder in 1941, dances continued, even if they were not held as often as in the past. In November 1941, the young people of Kingstree hastily put together a dance to honor 45 soldiers from Camp Gordon in Georgia who spent the night at the Kingstree National Guard Armory while on their way to Ft. Bragg.

After Walter Dennis' death in 1945, the Town of Kingstree bought the property in December 1946, for use as a youth center and canteen for teenagers. The council turned it over to a governing board composed of one member of town council, a representative from each of the civic organizations in town and two teens.

Photos of Wee Nee Beach and the pavilion are scarce. If anyone has photos in a scrapbook or in an attic, please consider sharing them with the Williamsburgh Museum. Wendell Voiselle would be happy to make copies for the museum so that you can keep the originals, but it's a shame that an institution that gave so many people pleasure for such a long time is not better represented at the museum.

Mapping the Village

On a June afternoon, local surveyor Kevin Wilson and museum director Wendell Voiselle visited the Williamsburg County Library to "do some science." Bobbie McCutchen, who coordinates the children's science programs at the library, invited them to give the young people attending an idea of what land surveyors do and how surveyors' work has changed over the years. In addition, she wanted the children attending to think about what the Town of Kingstree was like in its early years when it was known as Williamsburgh, what it's like now, and to dream about what it could be as the town embarks on a revitalization program through Main Street, South Carolina.

Kevin brought his surveyor's tools to demonstrate, while Wendell brought tools used by another local surveyor, the late J. David Brockington, back when transits and chains were used instead of lasers. The Brockington survey instruments are now on display at the Williamsburgh Historical Museum. In addition, Kevin took the group outside to show them how to identify a property corner.

The girls also looked at maps of the town. One dated 1737, was drawn by Anthony Williams, Deputy Surveyor to His Majesty, the King of England.

The 1737 Anthony Williams map.

Photo Courtesy Bobbie McCutchen

Another map, which appeared in W.W. Boddie's History of Williamsburgh, was drawn in 1923 by Adeline Shuler, presumably for inclusion in the Boddie book, from an 1801 map by Robert Frierson.

Map based on Robert Frierson's 1801 map.

Wendell also brought a map from the museum by surveyor P.G. Gourdin, which shows Kingstree's layout in 1948, complete with property owners' names written on the parcels of land they owned.

Kevin Wilson points out to Tiller Kennedy the property her grandmother now owns, 

which in 1948 was owned by the Swains.

It is interesting to see how much you can learn from looking at the various maps of the town. For example, the 1737 map shows a large town square, or muster/parade ground in the center of town. By 1801, that square has disappeared, and the muster ground had shrunk to two lots, the two lots on which the Williamsburg County Courthouse sits today.

Apparently before the 1737 map was drawn, there had been some controversy over the size of the common. From the South Carolina Council Journals, Vol. 1, we read that the Council met on Friday, February 27, 1735/6, and "Read the Petition of Several of the Inhabitants of Williamsburgh setting forth that by an Instruction to them given, they run out 400 acres for a Town and Common and run their Tracts of land bounding on the said 400 acres where they settled, and they being informed there was an Order of enlarging said Common which would take away their Homes and their Lands they have Cleared & prayd a Stop may be put to y'e Same. His Majesty's Council taking the same into Consideration, and being satisfied that the Pet'rs would be great Sufferers if any Alteration was made in the laying out of that Town, and also that the Resolve of Council of the 19th of August last relating to the fixing of the Townships was made after they were settled. Ordered. That upon these Considerations the said Town remain as it was first layd out that none of the Settlers Lands may be Encroached upon."

The 1737 map and the 1801 map, which show numbered lots make it appear that the town was well-populated, and in so doing, are misleading. Another map from Boddie's History that I find fascinating is a sketch by someone named Fulton taken from an original 1788 map.

Sketch of the 1788 map of Williamsburgh.

This map dramatically shows how sparsely populated the town was almost 60 years after its settlement. Boddie notes that the King had decreed that each settler receive a one-half acre town lot and acreage outside the town based on the number of persons in the family, on which they were to grow their food. In New England this had worked well as settlements quickly grew up, serving as a defense for the more heavily populated coastal areas from Native American tribes. However, those stubborn Scots-Irish who settled Williamsburgh did not conform to the pattern. Instead of building their homes in town, they built on their farmland and ignored the town lots.

According to Boddie and the 1788 map, there were five small buildings, all less than 20'x20', in what we consider downtown Kingstree today. Two were located near the northeast corner of Main and Academy Streets. William Bracey lived in one of the buildings and operated a store from the other in which he sold whiskey, gun powder, and shot, the only things available for sale year round. 

On the other side of Broad Street (Main), there were three little buildings. Patrick Cormick lived in one, located where the Williamsburg County Public Administration building is. He, too, had a small store near his home that he operated. John Bracy lived in the third building which was either on or very near the muster grounds.

While Anderson Brothers Bank currently occupies the property once known as

the James Davidson settlement, another well-known house, the Harper House, shown here,

was once located on the property.

Photo Courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

Outside town, the James Davidson settlement was located where Anderson Brothers Bank is now, and Boddie says it "contained one of the most pretentious mansion houses in the district." Another cleared area near the town was a race track, located on the Fulton sketch in the vicinity of the old Kingstree Elementary School where Academy and Kelley streets now intersect. A lot belonging to the Church of England had also been cleared of its pine trees.

The 1788 map also clearly shows the Kingstree Branch (now known as the Canal) winding through town with a dam at its northern end.

Concern that the town was almost uninhabited instigated a call in 1788 for the entire town to be resurveyed and a committee established to assign lots to all who claimed they had an allotment and to sell all lots that were not claimed.  By April 1789, 63 lots had been claimed, with another 25 lots sold. By June, another 40 lots had been sold.

However, in 1791, Robert Witherspoon and John McClary were hired to re-survey and stake every lot in town as the old stakes had either fallen down or disappeared. In 1801, the commission hired Robert Frierson to survey the Town of Williamsburgh at the King's Tree. From that map, we learn that Main Street was known as Broad; Mill as Washington; Church as Adams; and Brooks as Jefferson. Academy Street with Fourth Street, later, according to Boddie, known as Bay Street. In the 1890s, Academy was also called Wall Street by some.

The muster ground was located on the lots on which the 

Williamsburg County Courthouse stands today.

In 1800, T.T. Woods was hired to lay out the muster ground and found that John Brady had built his house on the property set aside for it. Boddie notes that in 1805, the Commission appointed Arthur Cunningham, its secretary/treasurer, agent to file suit against Woods for conspiracy. Woods had been clerk to the Commission, and Boddie does not make it clear if the suit against him was in that capacity or due to some problem with his lay-out of the muster ground.

By 1806, the town had been surveyed and re-surveyed many times. Theodore Gourdin and John Scott obtained a restraining order from the court regarding the boundary lines of the town. A committee was appointed to have the boundaries confirmed by the courts. Finally in 1810, the committee fined several people for planting crops in the public streets.  At that time, the committee also passed a resolution to maintain Broad Street as the center street for the town and on no account for it to be changed thereafter.

Eventually the town took on the shape we know today and expanded both to the east and to the north, but those are stories for another time.

Kingstree Marks Anniversary

The Town of Kingstree marks an anniversary this week. On Friday, July 12, 1912, contractors handed over the reins of the town's new municipal water system to the three men elected as Water & Sewer Commissioners, LeRoy Lee, W.H. Carr and D.J. Epps. The sewer system went online 10 days later on July 22, after a delay, as the contractor had to wait on rocks to arrive so he could finish lining the drain field.

For the first 160 years of the town's existence, residents and businesses were pretty much on their own in how they provided water and waste removal for themselves. In the early 1890s, the town dug two continuous-flow artesian wells for public use. By 1897, County Record owner and editor Louis Bristow noted, "With two good continuous-flow artesian wells in town, Kingstree is well-supplied with pure drinking water..."

Over the years, town council made improvements to those wells and added others, and as residents began to build large homes, some of them found means to provide running water on their property. The first public building to get running water was the county jail in 1897. Barr's Hotel, located next door to the courthouse where the Alex Chatman Complex is today, added running water in 1898. The newspaper noted, "a commodious bathroom has been added and either hot or cold water is available anytime night or day." When the Kellahan Hotel was built across Main Street from the site of Barr's old hotel in 1907, it was equipped from the start with electricity and running water. The 475-foot well drilled behind the hotel for its use was the deepest in town at that time and produced the largest flow of water. The jail's water system, however, had ceased working by 1906, and it was not until 1908 that Kingstree Hardware won the bid to install waterworks for both the courthouse and the jail.

One of the public flowing wells. This one was located at the intersection of 

Academy and Kelley streets.

Photo courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

Some of the public wells produced too much of a good thing. The well located at the Baptist Church on the corner of Academy and Brooks street, produced so much water that the town had to dig a ditch to funnel the excess to the river.

By 1905, some townspeople and The County Record began lobbying for a townwide water and sewer system. In 1907, the town appointed a committee to conduct a feasibility study. However, by the end of the year, nothing had been done, and the town council summarily fired the committee. In late 1910, the town seriously began considering a public water and sewer system, and in September 1911, voters went to the polls to decide whether or not to float bond issues for these two utilities. They voted 64-23 in favor of a $28,000 water bond, and 67-22 in favor of a $14,000 bond to install a sewer system.

By December 1911, Meeks Construction Company of Atlanta had secured the contract for both systems, and work began in early January 1912.  By June 10, the company turned on the water to test both the lines and the fire hydrants. Forty years ago, Livingston McFarlin spent an election evening telling me, a young cub reporter covering her first election night, stories about life in Kingstree in the early part of the 20th century. Mr. Livingston was nine years old that summer of 1912, and he claimed he was allowed to take the first taste of the water from the new system. Laughing heartily and slapping his knee, he said those many years later, "They thought that if it didn't kill the little colored boy, it would be safe for them to drink." Mr. Livingston died July 12, 1981, 69 years to the day the water was turned on for good in Kingstree.

In 1971, Bessie Swann Britton wrote about the installation of water and sewer lines in Kingstree. She began, "Long ago, a crew of happy-go-lucky laborers known as traveling roustabouts installed the first system of waterworks in Kingstree. Those powerful young men seemed to radiate good health. They worked long hours digging ditches and laying sewer pipes, installing a septic tank, and erecting a storage tank for the town's reserve supply of water. It stood high in the air near the police station on Mill Street. Stationary steel ladders reached from the ground to a narrow platform around the tank, and there was a single guardrail around the platform. 'Kingstree, SC,' was painted in large white letters on the dark tank, which was not as big as the one now on the same spot."

The water tank Bessie Britton referred to as the one standing in 1971, 

moments before it was demolished in the mid-1990s.

Photos Courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

She went on to tell that once the water tank was completed, the crew chose to throw themselves a farewell party on the platform surrounding the tank. "Two played leapfrog around and around the platform; one pretended to skin the cat on the guardrail, while the others raised their voices in Sweet Adeline," she noted. Meanwhile, they all imbibed freely of alcoholic libations. They continued to sing, going through Who Threw the Overalls in Mistress Murphy's Chowder?; The Railroad Rag, Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye; The Girl I Left Behind Me, which they changed to The Girls We Left Behind Us; and a rousing rendition of Dixie, before the lone policeman on duty arrived on the scene and shouted impatiently for them to cease and desist. He was greeted by one of the men standing on his hands and waving his feet furiously in the air. The policeman's response was to head off to consult with Mayor Percy Kinder. In the end, the roustabouts came down when they were good and ready, and as Miss Bessie concluded, "Nobody got hurt. Nobody got arrested. Nobody got sued, and nobody got conked."

I haven't been able to find any source that confirms this tale, and it is doubtful that Bessie Swann was an eyewitness–unless she was home for a weekend–as she was working as a stenographer in Clemson during the summer and early fall of 1912. But it sure does make for a good story.

W.H. Carr was the first citizen to run city water to his home, and F.W. Fairey, who was building a home on Academy Street at the time, was the first to tap on at the town's expense after going through the necessary procedures.

G.S. Chu, known as The Chinese Laundryman, advertised within weeks of the water system going into service: "I found in impossible to do good work with the well water at my place so have connected my laundry with the city water system and have every facility for doing good work. Send me your shirts, collars, and cuffs, and I will give you satisfaction."

By the early 1950s, town water customers were using 350,000 gallons of water a day, except during the hottest part of the summer when consumption jumped to 500,000 gallons. The system had expanded to seven wells placed throughout town, but by the 1970s, only four wells were in use.

The town continued to boast about the quality of the water. In 1955, children in Kingstree participated in a study, which compared them to children in Bishopville. Kingstree's water had a supply of natural fluoride, while Bishopville's had none. Children, ages 6-16, who had lived all their lives in Kingstree had teeth that were in astonishingly better condition than those in Bishopville. Sixty point nine percent of children, aged 6-16, who had lived all their lives in Kingstree had no decayed, missing, or filled teeth, compared to only 19.2 percent of children the same age who had lived all their lives in Bishopville.

So tomorrow raise a glass of Kingstree water in a toast to 106 years of continuous water/wastewater service and salute the men and women who have in the past and continue today to provide us with a utility we all too often take for granted.

DON'T FORGET:

JULY 13:  KINGSTREE LIVE AT THE DEPOT,  7-10 p.m., Music by Charlie Floyd. Food trucks, snow cones, face painting, corn hole.

JULY 14:  BOOK SIGNING, WILLIAMSBURGH MUSEUM, 5-6 p.m.  Sherman Carmichael will be signing his latest book, Mysterious Tales of Coastal North Carolina. Free Admission, Light Refreshments.

AUGUST 10:  KINGSTREE LIVE AT THE DEPOT, 7-10 p.m., Back-to-School Bash. Music by The Band Punch. Food Trucks, Free Snow Cones, Face Painting.

July 4, 1932: Kingstree's Bicentennial Celebration

Happy Independence Day! Many of you will celebrate in some way today with family or friends, but you may not be as excited about it as you would have been had you lived in Kingstree 86 years ago. On Monday, July 4, 1932, the Town of Kingstree marked its 200th birthday with an all-day celebration.

The town had high hopes for its bicentennial. Planning began in 1925 when the Kiwanis Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and the seven ladies' clubs in town appointed seven men and seven women to a committee which expected to work for seven years to ensure that 1932 would be a "Jubilee" year for Kingstree. Some things were accomplished quickly. They decided that Kingstree would be known as "The Royal Town," and came up with the slogan, "A Royal Welcome to The Royal Town."

This faded sign proclaiming a Royal Welcome to the Royal Town was preserved

by Mrs. Woody Nexsen who recently donated it to the Williamsburgh Museum.

The stone marker commemorating the King's Tree was placed by the DAR

in preparation for the bicentennial celebration.

The Margaret Gregg Gordon Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed the marker near the river on Main Street which tells the story of the King's Tree and how the town was named. By 1927, the committee was discussing permanent beautification plans to make sure that the town embodied the slogan, "The Royal Town," by 1932. Nell Gilland and Laura Hemingway, both talented writers, authored articles about the town and its history for newspapers throughout the state. Nell Gilland also edited a special bicentennial issue of The County Record, sponsored by the Council of Farm Women and published on June 30, which devoted its pages to the history of the town.

The best-laid plans, however, can fall victim to unforeseen circumstances, and with the stock market crash of 1929, followed by the Great Depression, the town's plans for a year-long celebration to tie in with the George Washington Bicentennial celebration and the 200th birthday of General Francis Marion were greatly reduced. By early 1932, the town had pared its celebration down to hailing the move of the Kingstree post office from its old building on the west side of Academy Street to the building of the failed Wee Nee Bank on the corner of Main & Academy and planning an all-day celebration on the Fourth of July. 

The highlight of that celebration was a picnic to which descendants of the original 40 settlers who came with Roger Gordon in 1732 were invited as special guests. Those special guests included descendants of Roger Gordon, Edward Plowden, James Armstrong, Davis Johnson, Adam McDonald, William James, Archibald Hamilton, David Wilson, and John Scott. Camden resident Laurens Mills attended the festivities as he descended from at least 10 of Kingstree's earliest settlers including Roger Gordon, John Witherspoon, William James, Major John James, James Ervin, David Anderson, Major James Conyers, David Wilson, and Thomas Frierson.

A marker to Capt. Roger Gordon stands in the Williamsburg Cemetery.

The day began at the Courthouse where Kiwanis Club members served free lemonade to those who gathered to hear speeches from Judge Philip H. Stoll and Senator Emerson L. Ard. Mayor F.R. Hemingway served as Master of Ceremonies, urging members of the First Families to raise funds for a bronze plaque on the courthouse which would bear the names of the 40 first settlers. Judge Stoll urged that a permanently bound copy of the bicentennial issue of The County Record be preserved at the Kingstree Library. In his speech, titled "The Spirit of our Forefathers," he touched on the fact that Kingstree came into existence in 1732, the same year that both George Washington and Francis Marion were born. Senator Ard's speech primarily recalled the various crops that had brought prosperity to the community, touting the recent discovery that South Carolina-grown vegetables had high levels of iodine, believed to be conducive to good health and thought to be a new source of wealth to farmers in the state.

Kellahan Park as it looks today.

After the speeches, the crowd dispersed to several areas–Kellahan Park, Wee Nee Beach, Boswell's Beach, and the Red Hill Community Park–to enjoy basket picnics. In the afternoon, those who wished attended a baseball game while others participated in a tea dance and others viewed a three-act pageant sponsored by the DAR, The United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Auxiliary of the American Legion. That evening residents danced the night away at the Wee Nee Beach Pavilion at the Main Street Bridge to the music of the Walter Speights Orchestra of Charleston, which also provided music for the program at the Courthouse.

The Town of Kingstree's tricentennial is now only 14 short years away. Maybe as we begin the serious work of revitalizing downtown through the Main Street program, we should keep in mind that the projects we choose to work on will go a long way toward making Kingstree's 300th birthday in 2032 an extra-special occasion.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

JULY 13:  KINGSTREE LIVE AT THE DEPOT,  7-10 p.m., Music by Charlie Floyd. Food trucks, snow cones, face painting, corn hole.

JULY 14:  BOOK SIGNING, WILLIAMSBURGH MUSEUM, 5-6 p.m.  Sherman Carmichael will be signing his latest book, Mysterious Tales of Coastal North Carolina. Free Admission, Light Refreshments.

AUGUST 10:  KINGSTREE LIVE AT THE DEPOT, 7-10 p.m., Back-to-School Bash. Music by The Band Punch. Food Trucks, Free Snow Cones, Face Painting.