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Main Street, Society Hill, before paving, around 1910. Society Hill was the core of the Welsh Neck settlement along the Great Pee Dee River granted to Welsh Baptists from Delaware in 1736. The name...G. South Carolina Towns & Cities | History of SC Slide Collection
Almost all of the images in this collection document a particular South Carolina place at a specific time in its history. This section, organized alphabetically is not intended, therefore, as a comprehensive list of every South Carolina community. It is actually a fairly impressionistic look at the county seats and rural villages, as well as the cities, in which South Carolinians live and work. For several towns and cities (Beaufort, Camden, Charleston, Columbia, Darlington, Georgetown, Greenville, Spartanburg, and Sumter), an effort has been made to select several images that show how that place has changed over time. Other places were chosen for special features that have made that town unique; still others have been chosen because they illustrate the features that many towns in the state have shared.
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Rock Hill, like many Upcountry South Carolina towns, began as a railroad depot in 1852 on the Charlotte-Columbia Railroad. Incorporated in 1870, its real growth came from two influences: the influx of...Photo
Ridgeland became the county seat of Jasper County when that county was created in 1912. Originally named Gopher Hill when settled in 1855, it was renamed based on its location on a sandy ridge. This...Photo
Piedmont, whose Main Street and YMCA are pictured here in a 1909 postcard view, was an important mill town in the early 20th century textile industry in Anderson County. Courtesy of the Howard G...Photo
A Pawley's Island hotel in 1893. Pawley's is one of the oldest beach resorts in the state, and has managed (in spite of having a railroad causeway early in the 20th century, and an automobile causeway...Photo
Plat of Orangeburg, around 1800. The table of reference on the back of the plat identifies the letters as follows: "a. Court House b. Goal c. Ephraim Mitchell's House d. D. Bruce's house e. Public...Photo
North Augusta has a dual personality; although it has developed since the Second World War as a suburb of Augusta, across the Savannah River in Georgia, its citizens are very conscious of their South...Photo
Newberry County Courthouse, around 1900. The county was originally formed in 1785, and peopled (as was nearby Lexington County) by Swiss and German Lutherans who settled in the rich farmlands between...Photo
The improvement of state highways in the 1920s brought increased tourist business to the South Carolina coastal resorts. The Ocean Forest Hotel at Myrtle Beach was built by a Greenville businessman in...Photo
Clarendon County Courthouse, Manning, after a tornado in 1903 had swept through the town, uprooting trees and blowing the roofs off most of the stores on Main Street. Clarendon County was organized in...