The Yorkville Enquirer reported on March 7, 1888 – “A fire in Winnsoboro last Thursday (March 1st), destroyed the livery stable of W.R. Doty and Co., the merchandise store of H.W. Timms, Landecker and Co., the Episcopal Church, and the residence of Paul Jenkins.”
City Directories and History: 1961 – Winnsboro Electronic
The 1912 Sanborn Map shows this location as that of #36 South Congress Street, a wooden frame furniture store.
One prominent family living above its manufacturing business about 1900 was the Robert W. Phillips family. Mr. Phillips (1840-1919) served as a sergeant in the Seventh Regiment of the South Carolina Volunteers in the Confederate Army. About 1880, Mr. Phillips built his business on the northeast corner of Congress and Liberty Streets. The two-story building housed a spacious upstairs apartment for his wife Rebecca Mobley and their three sons Tom, Ernest, and Henry. Two
generations of Phillips lived in that apartment until 1919. The Phillips manufactured furniture and coffins at this location. Upon the death of Robert W. Phillips in 1919, John M. Harden, Jr. purchased the building and opened his hardware, furniture, and coffin business there. Harden Funeral Home began in the building (later to became Pope Funeral Home on South Congress Street in the 1960’s.) The Harden family lived in the apartment until moving to a new residence at 118 W. Liberty Street. In 1937 they moved the funeral home to a new location at 124 S. Vanderhorst Street. At the time the business was located at 158 S. Congress St the Harden businesses utilized the entire lot back to the railroad for storage and garage space. Tom Hoy cut blue granite monuments in one of those buildings behind the funeral home.
The Fairfield News and Herald contained an ad on Nov. 1, 1882 stating, “New furniture can be found at Winnsboro’s first class furniture store, R.W. Phillips.”
It is of interest to note that the red colored logo for Phillips Furniture exists today in the sidewalk in front of the store location at 158 S. Congress Street. The sidewalk was built in the first years of the 1920’s. Prior to its paving, it existed as a board platform similar to those seen in old Hollywood western films. The next three lots north of 158 were owned by the Lauderdale family for over four generations from 1844 until the 1970’s.
In the south side of the Phillips building was a small store space in which Longstreet Gant ran a candy and notions shop. Later a butcher shop run by Andrew Timms utilized this space. [Courtesy of J.M. Lyles] Also, images from the collection of Betty Harden of Winnsboro, S.C.
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