Recently the Town of Kingstree put a new coat of paint on the Main Street building most residents know as the Marcus Building. The history of the building, however, goes back to the early 1900s.
The Marcus Building as it looks today.
On the night of March 18, 1907, between 8 and 9 p.m., fire broke out in Meyers Bakery, which was located in the rear of Scott & Miller's Market on Main Street. The fire brigade was able to confine the blaze to three wooden buildings on the north side of the street located between P.S. Courtney's store and G. Ollie Epps' store at the corner of Main and Hampton. The three burned buildings included Scott & Miller's market, a restaurant run by Phil Fulton and a cottage occupied by Mollie Epps. The two stores were owned by R.H. Kellahan. The County Record noted that most of the contents of the stores were saved, but that Meyers lost his ovens and baking utensils, valued between $700-$800.
Kellahan soon began the process of rebuilding the stores lost to the fire; however, he was constructing the new buildings from brick. In August 1910, W.E. and R.R. Jenkinson moved their store, Jenkinson Brothers, from the McCabe building on W. Main Street to one of the new Kellahan storefronts, the building we now know as the Marcus building. By March 1911, R.R. Jenkinson had returned to Manning, leaving his brother in Kingstree. The store here eventually became known as W.E. Jenkinson.
By September of 1910, Milhaus & Jennings had opened a grocery store in the other side of the building. By the close of 1910, Milhaus & Jennings had added a fresh meat department, installing a large refrigeration unit. Milhaus retired in 1912, selling his interest in the business to L. Thames. However, the business retained the Milhaus & Jennings name.
The second floor of the building was divided into rooms, and in October 1910, S.A. Nettles, who had for many years managed the Nettles Hotel in Lane, moved to Kingstree and opened the rooms on the second floor of the building as the Nettles Hotel. The News & Courier noted that Nettles was taking advantage of the hotel's location close to the railroad to cater to traveling salesmen.
Late in December 1910, The County Record announced, "The alleged long distance telephone has moved its local office from the Kellahan to the Nettles Hotel. It's as hard to hear as ever, it may be observed." The following July, the hotel hosted the first annual meeting of the Wee Nee Bank stockholders. In January 1912, Nettles moved over to the Kellahan Hotel to become its manager. He retained the old Nettles Hotel, using it for storage and as an apartment rental.
The building as it looked not long after it opened.
Jenkinson Brothers was the scene of a tragedy on Christmas Eve 1912, when young James Fleming, who had just returned to Kingstree from Florida and was waiting for a ride to his home near Workman was shot to death while standing near the doorway of the store. Due to the din of fireworks and gunshots in celebration of Christmas Eve, it was believed that the bullet which severed Fleming's femoral artery came from across the street at the depot, but no one was ever charged in the incident. (See the full story of the shooting here.)
The M.E. King family was renting several of the old hotel rooms upstairs. A few weeks after Fleming's tragic death, a fire broke out in one of these rooms. This was the first major fire to occur in Kingstree after the installation of the town's municipal water system, and the presence of a ready supply of water enabled the Kingstree Fire Department to limit the fire to the one building. Fifty thousand gallons of water was dumped on the fire. While W.E. Jenkinson and Milhaus & Jennings both suffered smoke and water damage and were forced to move out of the building for a short time, their stores were quickly repaired, and they were back in business by the end of March. The Kings, however, lost all their furniture and household belongings.
After Mr. Kellahan rebuilt the second floor, S.W. McIntosh re-opened the hotel under the name The McIntosh House. The McIntosh House was the scene of the December 1915 wedding of S.W. McIntosh's niece, Irene, and E.W. Rowland. The McIntoshes, however, moved to North Carolina in January 1916, and the hotel closed.
In April 1915, Milhaus & Jennings had moved its grocery business to the Wilkins Store on Academy Street that had formerly been the home of Butler Dry Goods. It appears that Elias George may have opened a business in the old Milhaus & Jennings store, as R.H. Kellahan's 1917 will, stated "I bequeath to my brother, T.M. Kellahan, those certain brick stores situate on the north side of Main Street, now rented by Jenkinson Bros. Co, and Elias George and formerly by McIntosh.
W.E Jenkinson remained in the building until April 1921 when he moved his store to N. Academy Street.
In the spring of 1922, S.J. Deery announced that he had bought the stock of Kingstree Furniture and was opening Williamsburg Furniture in new quarters on Main Street. The photo below shows Williamsburg Furniture located in the building once occupied by Jenkinson and Milhaus & Jennings. The Deerys had left Kingstree by 1925, and it is unclear if Williamsburg Furniture remained in the store or what business operated there until 1933 when Harry Marcus opened his general merchandise store for business. It is also unclear when the false front was placed on the building; however the balcony and upstairs rooms still remain as part of the building behind the current facade.
Main Street during the 1920s. Williamsburg Furniture is at the far right of the photo.
Source: Williamsburgh Historical Society
The SC Secretary of State chartered Harry Marcus, Inc., in February 1933, with capital stock of $2,000. Marcus was president and treasurer, with Morris Schrieberg as vice president and secretary.
Harry Marcus operated the store until ill health forced him to retire in 1960. His nephew Herman, known as Hymie, and his brother, William, took over the operation of the store until Hymie's death in 1967, when his widow Dorothy "Dottie" Rosen Marcus assumed sole ownership. Their son David became the store's manager in 1976. David and Anita Marcus also ran a travel agency from the ground floor part of the building that was the old entrance to the Nettles Hotel. Anita Marcus also taught dance classes in the building. The store closed in 2010.
On the night of Wednesday, March 20, 1963, fire again struck this block of E. Main Street. The blaze began in the J.C. Duke Grocery to the west of Marcus Department Store. Duke had purchased the grocery business from Hoke Smith in December 1962. That building, however, was owned by Julia B. McGill. After the fire was extinguished, the walls were still standing but the interior was gutted. Three other stores were damaged. C. Tuckers to the west of Duke Grocery sustained by structural and smoke damage as the fires penetrated the fire wall between the buildings, burning into the ceiling and damaging the roof. Marcus Department Store and The Ladies' Shop also suffered smoke damage. Marcus was closed the day after the fire to clean up, but re-opened on Friday.
The Town of Kingstree acquired the property in the summer of 2017 and is actively looking for a buyer willing to bring new life to an important piece of history, whether as a retail establishment or as something new, like a craft brewery and pub. If the false front of the building were removed and the balcony re-imagined with flowering hanging baskets, the building could easily resemble an English pub. And with a name like the Crown & Anchor it could help the town live into its new branding as "Crown of the Black River." A new business in this building would help reawaken Main Street.
