Tourists Swarmed Kingstree in 1931 to View Spring Flowers

On Thursday, April 16, 1931, the following article appeared in The News & Courier with the headline: Kingstree Hotels Are Filled As Gardens Reach Height. So, let's amble back 90 years and see what was going on in town.

Today, Kingstree is still adorned with many colorful azaleas in the Spring.

"The tourist business here is all anyone could ask at present. Rooming houses and hotels are filled to overflowing, eating places are rushed, and automobile storage rooms are crowded every night. On the uptown streets, cars carrying licenses from practically every state in the union and some beyond, are parked daily. Groups of strangers, who are classed instantly as 'tourists' stroll the streets, wandering into residential sections, where they saunter more leisurely while they gaze high overhead at the cascades of purple color that is wisteria catapulting down lofty pines and oaks, or shimmering on trellises.

"Many express their surprise at the beauty of the town now, as evidenced by individual gardeners. 'The town in naturally pretty,' is a comment often heard in speaking of the patriarchal live oaks and virgin pines that stand along the street side or on lawns of homeowners.

"It is the opinion of others that Kingstree could be as attractive as Summerville, it being almost as much of a 'flower town' in spring as that. Many azaleas have been planted by individual gardeners the last few years, and whenever one builds a house here not, it goes without saying that the ground will be landscaped and planted. Neighboring nurseries have been doing a lucrative business here all spring, beginning last fall. They come and lay out the grounds and return, bringing shrubbery and plants by the truckload.

"Kingstree gardens are at their height just now. Wisteria has never been prettier nor bloomed with greater profusion. Spireas are like unto fountains of white, iris innumerable, in various colors, bloom in many gardens. Climbing roses have come into their own special glory, and azaleas, weigelas, kerria, dogwoods, honeysuckle, and others, too numerous to mention, have taken up the tale that is spring.

"The several old gardens about the town are a delight to those who love all things old. In them, ancient boxwoods and camellia japonicas lend tone to their antiquity. Some of those have lost patriarchs among the plants during the winter, when winter residents from the North who hold lodges nearby bought the plants, removed them intact to their own gardens. Their places are missed. It is as though old friends have left those who loved them.

"Yes. Kingstree is a pretty town naturally."