The Harmon family name is also still quite prominent around the county. The home was originally much larger, but was cut in half in the 1950s. This part remains on the original site, while the other half is located on North Lake Drive.

The house has remained in the Corley and Harmon families, although it was briefly owned by Senator Strom Thurmond. It was restored in 1994 by Mr. and Mrs. Charles D. Corley.

SCIWAY thanks frequent contributor Ann Helms of Spartanburg for this great information and picture she took in 2009.

Owen Drug Co. offers a full pharmacy and – best of all – an old-fashioned soda fountain:

When you visit Owen Drug Company, you’re invited to step back in time for a refreshing break at our soda fountain. We have hand-dipped Mayfield ice cream in lots of flavors, fountain sodas, creamy milkshakes, candy and more.

Our soda fountain is one of the remaining few, and it’s the perfect place to sit, relax, and enjoy delicious refreshments. And don’t forget to glance up at the original tin ceiling for a feeling of real down home nostalgia

Batesburg-Leesville is located in the western portion of Lexington County. Until they united in 1993, Batesburg and Leesville were two separate towns. Over a period of decades, joint ventures between the two towns gradually pointed them in the direction of consolidation.

In 1987, the theater was purchased by the Saluda County Council and donated to the newly chartered Saluda County Historical Society, which fully restored the theater and established the Saluda County Museum in an adjoining building. Today the theater is home to the Saluda Players, the city’s community theater group.

The Saluda Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

SCIWAY thanks Ann Helms of Spartanburg for sharing this picture she took in 2010.

The school was originally located on farmland in the Midway Community just outside Gaffney. It was constructed by brothers Jimmy and Tom Pettit (with the help from other Cherokee County residents) and went through 11th grade. The name “Possum Trot” most likely comes from the fact that students reached the school by following an already existing possum trail through the nearby woods.

With the construction of newer, larger schools, Possum Trot School was abandoned and eventually fell into disrepair. In 1969, Louise Phifer Camp hired local builder Ernest Wyatt to restore the schoolhouse as a gift for her husband Bill Camp, a Gaffney native who attended the school with his siblings. Although the school had greatly deteriorated over the years, its foundation was still intact, which made it possible for Wyatt to restore the building to its original measurements. For more information on the restoration process, see this newspaper article from July 1970.

Due to a property transfer in 1992, the school had to be moved to its current location next to Hamrick’s department store on Peachoid Road. It now sits just a half-mile from the famous Gaffney Peachoid.

Special thanks to the Cherokee Historical and Preservation Society for sharing the history of the schoolhouse.

SCIWAY thanks Ann Helms of Spartanburg for this information and picture she took in 2010.

Chartered in 1786 and completed in 1800, the Santee Canal was the first summit canal built in America. It was also an integral part of a growing South Carolina economy, as it connected the Santee and Cooper rivers and provided a safer, more direct route for goods to travel from the Upstate and the Midlands to the port of Charleston. Among the shareholders of the charter were several notable South Carolinians, including William Moultrie, Francis Marion, and Charles Pinckney.

The 22-mile canal operated until the 1850s, when increasing costs and competition from railroads forced the shareholders to surrender the charter. Most of the abandoned canal disappeared in the early 1940s with the creation of Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, but sections of it can still be seen along the park’s trails. The canal was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Today, visitors can explore the history and natural beauty of the area as the park offers nearly four miles of boardwalks and trails as well as an interpretive learning center. Also located on the grounds of the park are the Berkley County Museum and the Stony Landing Plantation house, which was built in the early 1840s.

For more information, please visit the park’s website.

Many thanks to frequent contributor Ann Helms of Spartanburg, who took this picture in 2008.