The old Abbeville High School (pictured below) was a part of the city’s youth for over 50 years. A newer high school was built following integration to accommodate the much larger student body, and the old high school housed the school district administration for many years. However, it was demolished in 2008 and now this area is a municipal park.

Abbeville High School alumnus Mark Clark remembers the original school building well. He says that “the old auditorium featured ornate plaster and woodwork the likes of which aren’t seen in school auditoriums today. Although it had fallen into disrepair, the acoustics were still perfect.”

Mark also says that backstage there was an old chalkboard where students long gone had written their names and messages. He even found a note written by his parents, who attended the old Abbeville High School, expressing their love for each other!

Even though the school building is long gone, Mark says he always walks the track in the municipal park when visiting Abbeville to reminisce about old times at his high school.

SCIWAY thanks frequent contributor Abbeville native Mark Clark for these great pictures, information, and recollections.

Do you have memories from your days at the old Abbeville High School? Comment below and let us know!

The square is home to many festivals and events, such as “Flicks on the Bricks,” an outdoor movie series hosted by the City of Abbeville during the summer. The Abbeville Fountain, Abbeville Opera House, Abbeville Livery Stable, and the historic Abbeville Trinity Church are also all within walking distance.

SCIWAY thanks frequent contributor Mark Clark, an Abbeville native who currently resides in Winnsboro, for submitting this picture. Mark captured this shot on a quiet Sunday morning in July of 2011.

Mark writes, “The first job I ever had was working for the Abbeville Drug Company, which used to be located in the building at the far end of this picture. I stocked the shelves and delivered prescriptions to customers in town. Although Abbeville is a very small town, I quickly found that I knew very little about where the streets were without the help of a city map. Of course, since everyone in Abbeville knows everyone else, I quickly got to know most of my customers and learned a little about myself as well.”

The current stable was built in the late 1870s on the site of the original building and is located within walking distance of several other Abbeville landmarks including the Abbeville Trinity Church, the Abbeville Opera House, and the Abbeville County Courthouse.

In 2010 the Livery Stable was renovated as part of the Trinity Street Enhancement Project. Today, the stable is home to the Abbeville County Farmers Market and can also be rented for special events.

Many thanks to Anna Kate Pitts of Laurens for submitting this picture she took in March 2011.

See a picture of the Gaston Livery Stable, another brick barn located in Aiken.

When the church was organized it and Lower Long Cane A.R.P. church had over 500 members between them. The two churches were located in the Cedar Springs farming community that was very prosperous during this time.

In its early years Abbeville County was considered to be on South Carolina‘s frontier, and many settlers came here seeking better lives. Even before the Civil War and its aftermath brought sweeping economic changes to the South, the opening of the western frontier from the 1820s to the 1830s lured many area families westward in search of better opportunities. This westward migration drastically diminished the size of these two Presbyterian churches.

However, many families remained in Cedar Springs and became Confederate soldiers and officers. Unfortunately, nearly half of Abbeville County’s male population was killed during the war. This had far-reaching implications as families and farms struggled to survive during the Reconstruction.

The Great Depression sadly finished off many of these local farms that had survived the Reconstruction. The passage of time has also allowed the Sumter National Forest to swallow up many of the traces of Abbeville and McCormick County’s rich farming heritage.

Dr. Thomas Clark is buried in the Cedar Springs Church cemetery.

SCIWAY thanks Mark Clark, and Abbeville native who currently resides in Winnsboro, for submitting this great picture he took in December 2010.

We also thank Mark for providing this great historical information! He says that “the survival of both the Cedar Springs and Lower Long Cane churches speak to how fleeting wealth can be.”

Mark also attended a service at Cedar Springs Church in May 2011 and says that “the church is air-conditioned and even features a small elevator to allow the disabled to move between the sanctuary and fellowship hall. The sanctuary itself is quite cozy and pure, being devoid of stained-glass windows. The former slave balcony in the rear of the sanctuary has been closed in and converted to three small Sunday school classrooms. It wasn’t until halfway through the service that I realized Dr. Loyd Melton (the pastor) wasn’t using a microphone of any kind. The acoustics in the sanctuary are perfect! The untouched purity of the sanctuary left quite a favorable impression on me.”

McGowan’s brigade of South Carolinians participated in the costly Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May of 1864. The brigade, along with another one from Mississippi, was charged with defending a bulge in the Confederate battle line. The bulge was known as the Muleshoe Salient for its distinctive shape.

McGowan’s Brigade was charged with defending the angle facing westward. Fierce hand-to-hand combat with Union Army Major General Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps raged for over twenty hours through darkness and drenching rain. It was during this battle that wounded men would fall down, be pushed into the mud, and drowned.

Over 10,000 men from both sides would die in this battle, giving it the name the “Bloody Angle.” The S.C. State Senate passed a Concurrent Resolution on April 11, 2007, urging the federal government to authorize a monument memorializing McGowan’s Brigade. The monument was dedicated at the Virginia battle site in spring of 2009.

Many thanks to frequent contributor Mark Clark, an Abbeville native currently residing in Winnsboro, who submitted this picture and great description. Mark says that he “remembers an errant motorist crashing into and destroying this cannon’s predecessor when I was a young boy many years ago. The town’s unique military history and sense of community allowed me to enjoy my brief military service in the U.S. Navy as a young man. To me this picture sums up the bucolic beauty returning soldiers came home to following the horrors of war.”

Although most well known for his stance supporting the now defunct institution of slavery, John C. Calhoun was an accomplished politician in his day. Calhoun was President James Monroe’s Secretary of War from 1817 to 1824 and is remembered for doing away with the military’s patronage system in favor of a modern bureaucracy. He also served as President John Tyler’s Secretary of State from 1844 to 1845. In 1957 he was named one of the five greatest senators in U.S. history by the U.S. Senate, sharing company with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay.

Calhoun eventually sold this house and purchased a home in the Upstate area that he named Fort Hill. He lived there with his wife, Floride, and their three children. His daughter Anna Maria married Thomas Green Clemson and when she died in 1875, Clemson inherited the home and over 800 acres of land.

Upon Clemson’s death in 1888, the Fort Hill estate was donated to the State of South Carolina for the purpose of building an agricultural college. Today that land is the site of Clemson University.

This house is adjacent to the Abbeville Recreation Center facilities and was hidden behind overgrown foliage for many years.

SCIWAY thanks Mark Clark, an Abbeville native currently residing in Winnsboro, for submitting this picture and great historical information. He writes: “I went to the recreation center for many years as a boy never realizing a house like this existed in Abbeville. The Johnsons cleared the property and the whole town was amazed at the hidden jewel that had been discovered. The house was painstakingly restored by the Johnsons and is my favorite house in Abbeville.”

In time the building became a movie theater, but eventually it closed altogether. Fortunately, the late 1960s saw efforts to revive live theater in Abbeville and restore the beautiful old Opera House. Little by little, money was raised, restoration work progressed, and in 1978, the Opera House once again had a summer theater season.

Today Abbeville’s Opera House is fully restored to its turn-of-the-century splendor with two modern concessions to comfort – air conditioning and rocking chairs! The curtain is raised and lowered using the same rope-pulled rigging system as in 1908, making it the only “hemp house” remaining in South Carolina.

At the turn of the century, vaudeville was in its heyday, and so was Abbeville’s Opera House. The hall hosted musicals, Broadway shows, the Ziegfeld Follies, and famous entertainers of the day such as Jimmy Durante and Fannie Brice.

In the early days of motion pictures, Opera House audiences enjoyed a unique mix of live theater and movies. As more and more motion pictures were released, live road shows began to disappear. But early motion pictures carried full crews of musicians and sound-effects men. They were impressive and still carried the awe of “live” show business.

In 1927, The Jazz Singer was the first “talkie” to come to Abbeville. Soon afterwards, the theater converted to movies only. Business boomed through the 1930s and 40s, but changes in ownership, the economy, and a lack of public demand forced the house to close in the 1950s.

It wasn’t long before theater lovers in Abbeville organized a community theater group and began to raise funds for the restoration of the Opera House. Thornton Wilder’s Our Town was the first show produced after the restoration was completed in 1968.

Today, the Opera House attracts more than 20,000 visitors to Abbeville during its winter and summer seasons. Located on the town square across from the courthouse, the Opera House is open weekdays from 8:30 AM to 5 PM for self-guided tours.

Mark Clark, an Abbeville native currently living in Winnsboro, remembers when his high school senior class presented the play, You Can’t Take It With You, at the opera house in 1982. He was cast in the small role of Wilbur C. Henderson, an I.R.S. agent sent to collect back taxes from a character who doesn’t believe in paying them. “I was nervous,” Mark says, “but once I got in front of the bright lights, I couldn’t see the audience so I relaxed and performed my part. The experience gave me a healthy respect for Broadway actors who always have to get it right on the live stage.”

Visit the Abbeville Opera House’s website here.

Burt had become friends with Jefferson Davis before the Civil War during the 1840s. As he was fleeing from Richmond on his way to Georgia at the close of the war, Davis is said to have stopped at his friend’s home where he held the last meeting with his Confederate cabinet on May 2, 1865.

The house was purchased by James Stark in 1913, and his daughters Mary Stark Davis and Fanny Stark McKee were its last residents. The house was donated to the Historic Preservation Committee in 1971 by Mary Stark Davis.

SCIWAY thanks Mark Clark, an Abbeville native currently residing in Winnsboro, for submitting this photograph and historical information.

SCIWAY thanks Mark Clark, an Abbeville native currently residing in Winnsboro, for submitting this picture and historical information.

Marks says: “My father worked for this funeral home as a young man and had to go pick up the bodies of the deceased from the local hospitals. Talk about your odd jobs! The funeral home for many years was run by one of our neighbors, Harry Chandler. My father’s funeral was held here in 1994, completing the circle of life. In Abbeville, funeral homes honor the dead but also serve as the site of informal reunions among friends who have known each other since birth.”

Visit Harris Funeral Home’s website here.