From very early in Kingstree's history, the properties at the intersection of Main and Academy streets were viewed as prime real estate. The buildings on three of those corners were established early, with two of them still standing today. The Nelson House/Colonial Inn was the cornerstone of the Nelson Plantation and sat on the southeast corner of the intersection. Brockinton Drug Store had long been established on the southwest corner, and Stackley's Dry Goods was on the northeast. The Stackley building was later refitted as the Wee Nee Bank, and after the bank's failure, the Post Office moved into the building in 1932. It took some time, however, to establish the northwest corner of the intersection.
The red-brick Nexsen building is now home to Jarrito's Mexican Restaurant.
According to a story that appeared in The County Record in 1908, the property was tied up in the unsettled estate of S.M. Nexsen. Two old wooden buildings sat on the property. H.A. Meyer's bakery was in the front of one of the buildings, with Lesesne and Thompson's men's wear occupying the rear of that building. The other was a grocery store store operated by T.J. Pendergrass. Bessie S. Britton remembered Pendergrass as a jolly African-American storekeeper who had a comical pigeon-toed walk, often emulated by the bad little boys of the town.
On a Sunday afternoon in 1908, fire started in Lesesne and Thompson's part of the building. Although the bucket brigade fought it valiantly, both stores burned to the ground. No one, however, seemed too distraught by the loss. Meyer's Bakery moved into another store on Main Street, while T.J. Pendergrass (and his brothers) continued to operate their grocery store in a building on Academy Street for many more years.
The sign at the very top, identifying the Nexsen Building.
For several years, the lot remained vacant, although it was used, according to The County Record, as "an exhibition ground for sundry and varied amusements and gaming operators." In 1911, W.I. Nexsen bought the lot for $4,500. He allowed various amusements to continue on the lot until he began construction of a new building in 1913. The newspaper noted that only a few days before construction began, a Coney Island merry-go-round had been set up on the property.
The original plans called for a two-story brick building with retail establishments on the first floor and office space on the second. However, as the builders began their work, the Kingstree Masonic Lodge #46 approached Nexsen about adding a third floor to the building that its members could use as a lodge hall. Nexsen agreed, and Kingstree's second three-story building began to take shape. When completed, there were three retail stores on the ground floor, office space on the second floor, and the lodge hall on the third floor.
Detail work on the upper floors of the Nexsen building.
Because W.I. Nexsen also owned the buildings on either side of the three-story building on the corner, it is hard to establish with certainty what businesses were located in the three-story building. We do know that S. Marcus moved its operation from the Gourdin Building into one of the retail stores in the Nexsen building once it was completed. When Saul and Anne Marcus decided to retire from their retail store a few years later, the Bank of Kingstree moved a few doors down into the corner building. In 1917, it appears that Chase Brothers Piano works had a display and sales room in the building.
The second floor of the building was home to a number of medical, insurance, and law offices, including Drs. R.J. McCabe, W.L. Taylor, and James A. Cole. F.R. Hemingway opened a law office on the second floor, as did J.D. O'Bryan, although Mr. O'Bryan soon went into partnership with the Stoll brothers. Insurance agents R.C. Johnson, Jr., and Carlisle l. Strauss both opened offices on the second floor of the Nexsen building.
Colorful, lighted signs in the window's of the Nexsen building as a new day begins.
One interesting business that operated from the building was the Carolina Teachers' Agency, managed by F.K. Graham, with J. McCullough as assistant manager. A 1915 ad for the agency noted, "We have enlisted with us at this season, for both summer and fall terms, the very best teachers available and shall be glad to supply you at any season of the year. Office in Nexsen three-story building always open."
The third story of the building lent itself to another use in June 1949, when three of the stores on the west side of Academy Street caught fire. The fire started in the A&P Grocery store and quickly spread to D.D. Hardee's Palace Beauty & Barber Shop and Stanley Inman's Grocery. Firefighters were handicapped in fighting the blaze because they were unable to easily access the back of the buildings. Fire Chief Gordon Rodgers decided that the best way to attack the fire would be to drag the hoses up the two flights of stairs to the lodge hall on the third floor of the Nexsen building and then across the roof of Dubin's Department Store which would allow firefighters better access to the burning buildings than they had from the street. Although, the three buildings were seriously damaged, the fire was stopped from spreading to other buildings on the street.
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