Thirty years ago when asked to publish a pictorial history book on local culture, I scoffed at the thought.  Who needed a pictorial history of anything?  To my way of thinking, it was simply a means by which college professors fulfilled their publishing requirement without doing any real scholarship.  I was never impressed with them; and as many of my museum colleagues thought, they were a waste of time, talent and resources.  Recently I had to eat my words and I wish to apologize to all the authors of such books for my poor judgment.

It became clear when I was working on the history of an upstate S.C. county that the best resource of information for the county was indeed the pictorial history book.  My colleague, Paul Gettys, even purchased one of them to share with me due to the remarkable and accurate data the book offered.  In reality, finding the source and locale of many historically important homes is an achievement, but in many cases, the houses shown in the book are gone.  Just as we have found out by reviewing historic survey cards, about 25-30 percent of the subjects are no longer standing.  It is therefore highly beneficial that these picture books were indeed published.

Besides the pictures of building and individuals, the books that R&R is using to mine data are helpful in that they showcase what was important to the individual community they depict.  And yes, Roots & Recall does request permission to use images and information from the authors.  But it still leaves me wondering just what has happened to so many of the images from these books.  Do they remain with caring loved ones who know their value or have they been thrown to the curbside?

In December, I was in Charleston, S.C., for the first of many visits to come during the winter of 2015. At
first I photographed amazing pieces of architecture and as I walked the streets I began seeing that most
individuals were looking at the sidewalk or the store windows and street signs. Certainly all of these are
necessary aspects of transporting yourself from the beginning to end. But I all too often think it is the
journey we should most be enjoying. Sometimes it takes numerous trips to even discover what was so
plainly in sight the first time. For instance, as I walked down King Street the first time, I was simply
taking in the sights; but on my third trip down the sidewalk, I began taking note of iron grates, door
entrances, facade ornamentations, and stickers from numerous artists on the back of stop signs.

So, on my next trip down King Street, I began taking images of the little things that caught my eye. A
young man with a camera asked me, “what is it you are taking pictures of?” He didn’t even see what
was exciting me until I showed him the names of both the architect and builders of the 19th-century
building cast in the buildings corner pilaster. Nor did he understand why I took images of rows of
facades, doors, or dozens of other notable images. After following me for nearly two hours, he left not
having seen the Charleston I was enjoying. I simply think he, along with 99 percent of the public, were
too busy talking on their smart phones, walking their groomed dogs, or impressing their companion to
see Charleston at a deeper level. I hope that when all of Charleston’s R&R site is whole, you will take a
tour from door to door looking at the little things that makes Charleston such a lovely and intriguing city.

Just remember as you walk and talk, do take time to enjoy the journey and see the subtle pieces of life
that help make architecture, history and people so interesting. They are abundant in all cities, but
Charleston remains very special!  Enjoy the feature property by clicking on the icon.

We will be performing maintenance on the Roots & Recall website today, Thursday January 29 at 4:00PM.  The site should be back up by Monday February 2.  Thanks!

How often have I ridden down a rural road looking for interesting sites, only to discover that the ones I loved seeing twenty years ago are gone.  What has happened to our rural heritage in such a short time?  Not only are the country stores quickly disappearing but tenant houses and cotton gins as well.  It is sad for me to think whole communities have vanished due to the demise of cotton, textiles, or their proximity to interstate travel.  One upcountry S.C. town has nearly ceased to have any employment or commercial development because the county has no access to modern transportation.  It reminds me of the 19^th-century stories of towns not wanting the dirty “modern” railroad, only to recognize a decade later that all the commerce was going elsewhere.

Though Rock Hill is a relative newcomer to upcountry S.C., it attracted young men following the Civil War who were hungry for success, as did Greenville and other vibrant New South cities.  What surprises researchers is just what attracted these young men and, in the case of Rock Hill, it seems a vast majority came from Lancaster and Chester counties.  Old Rock Hill was made up of mostly those from these two areas along with a dusting of very interesting individuals such as Arnold Friedheim, a Jewish peddler who grew to become one of the region’s most successful merchants.

Did these young entrepreneurs simply want to prove their worth, following the war, or would they have been successful without the economic hardships of it?  What brought men such as Mr. Ivey to Rock Hill with his new idea of paying higher prices for cotton than surrounding counties, thus drawing business to the town and resulting in prosperity.  Or the ability of the Roddey family to build one of the largest Equitable Insurance agencies in the USA?  There were success stories by the dozens, all primarily the result of young talented men from adjacent counties flocking to make Rock Hill a successful post-war boom town.  Was this an isolated situation or did other towns such as Greenville, Augusta, and perhaps Greensboro also have similar stories.  Nevertheless, the departure of so much talent had to affect the economic well being of hundreds of rural communities, which in many cases never recovered.

Do you have a story to share?  If so please send your remarks to R&R.

Last fall I accepted a speaking engagement for a group of Southern garden enthusiasts. I had been asked to speak on none other than Roots & Recall. It just happened that nearly every one of the ladies whom I was addressing subscribed to the R&R blog, From the Porch. Having met only two of them previously, I was delighted to know the blog was reaching such a wide audience. Recently with the addition of new subscribers the blog now reaches more than 3,000 individuals, the vast majority of whom I will never have an opportunity to speak to individually.

So, addressing the group of ladies gave me pause to think that the weekly blog does have an impact. As a result, these garden enthusiasts suggested R&R should immediately begin to add information on heritage gardens to the website. In their opinion, the gardens created by homeowners are just as important as their homes themselves. In reality, I think they are precisely correct, and I look forward to hearing more about the historic gardens of which they are knowledgeable and to receiving further additions to R&R’s pages concerning interest in fauna and flora. It seems the exhibit at the McKissick Museum on the Pomaria Nursery was highly influential in linking homes and heritage gardening. Plans are in early 2015 for R&R to meet with the garden group again and begin adding data on historic gardens throughout the region.

Not only are the gardens themselves of importance but so too are the plantings. Though I have admitted that I destroyed ancient Princes trees out of ignorance, I have also worked hard to save heirloom fruit trees and other plants. The history of plants can’t be separated from the homes they grace. The White family at the Historic White Home in Rock Hill was highly influential in bringing Live Oaks to the region as well as Oak Leaf Hydrangea. And my own family introduced Pachysandra to the region because of my mother’s love of the ground cover that grew at her grandparents’ home in N.C.

Heirloom plants are an integral part of the home’s history, so please share your love of horticulture with Roots &Recall — we too cherish this love of our gardening heritage and would enjoy learning more, history@rootsandrecall.com and click on the new This Building Has History stamp to see what is coming to Lancaster County, S.C.

 

Do you believe houses retain a piece of those who have lived in them, as I do?  At first it might seem strange, but truly I believe by studying the design and elements of an old home, you can discover telltale remains of residents and the changes they made in the house while living there. One might have punched a hole through a door, another added a cast-iron clothes hook to the back of a door, and another planted boxwood. Take a close look at your home and you too may discover the multiple layers of living that make your home unique – ghost marks abound throughout older homes.

Therefore, it is strange for me to go into a new home with store-bought furnishings that have no bearing on the heritage of the occupant. I think of my home and the belongings within them as my friends and a part of my being. As Bill Cosby recently stated that, no, he was not giving his art collection to a museum, “I think of these items as my friends.”  And no, I am certainly not a Cosby fan. But his statement does hold true to me. It brings me pleasure to see a basket made by an old timer, Mr. Charlie Cole who died some twenty years ago or a chair made by Max Woody’s gg-grandfather, a painting done by one of my uncles, a pine cupboard from my great-grandmother’s kitchen, a piece of furniture I made when I was young, and pottery collected from artisans some four decades ago. These object and the home I live in are all part of my personality.

So in the same manner, I think of a home that has sheltered generations of the same family or those of multiple families who have perhaps added to the original home to make it their own. Owners modernize, simplify, and constantly update and change their homes to make them conform to modern expectations. It is these subtle changes that are as easily followed and identified as fingerprints are to individuals. So the next time you begin making changes to your home or walk through an old home, take a minute to examine the aspects of your imprint on your own home’s history.

The New Year will be bringing added opportunities for users of R&R to enjoy sharing on the website. Besides the thousands of historic survey cards that are being made available, the site is also linking widely to Sanborn Maps as well as digitized city directories for users to conduct their own research and learn just how extensively these two resources can be employed in meaningful genealogical research. In most cases, these will be provided by the S.C. Digital Library Services of S.C. as well as other professional archival facilities. S.C. has a wonderful Digital Library holding enormous collections of data well worth users of R&R’s attention. Their policy is to digitize and make available these resources when they can legally do so. To access these resources, R&R will be provided an easy pushbutton link that will take users directly to the appropriate linked data. It will be up to the user to search for their target interests. When possible, R&R will continue extracting vital data for researchers but these digitized sites are exceedingly beneficial for those individuals wishing to explore on their own and much deeper. R&R encourages you to use the S.C. Digital Library and see their vast collections on our history.

R&R’s volunteers are planning to have approximately twenty thousand historic sites available for users to review on the website within the next few months, and we hope everyone will continue sharing family images and information on your homeplaces, even those not listed on the website. It is not enough just to comment that you appreciate seeing grandmother’s home on R&R, the site wants your input in building the site with your contributions. Remember, it is up to you to provide the images and historic content necessary for the true preservation of your family’s homeplaces. And please remember, the website is working with several institutions to preserve local school histories. As of now, some 3,000 schools are available for review on the site but there are perhaps 10,000 privately held images of these schools, teachers, classes, etc., which should be posted along with the school image itself. So, keep contributing and sharing your privately held images and R&R will do our best to make them available for thousands to benefit from your generosity. Submit your information on schools to history@rootsandrecall.com. As one early user of R&R remarked, this is the new Wikipedia of Homeplace History, he couldn’t have been more accurate.

Again, R&R has proven that preservation through shared experiences works. Let’s keep sharing with each other so we all can enjoy our local heritage to its fullest.

 Everyone at R&R, all volunteers, highly appreciative of the support offered and the information gleaned from viewers. The site begins in 2015 with a heartfelt thanks for the thousands of you who continue to encourage our preservation work.

One of the most dynamic aspects of R&R’s work in 2015 will be its ability to provide a copy of older historic survey cards from across the state. These cards show images of thousands of 1970-90’s vintage structures. Volunteers have been digitizing these records for some fifteen months, and many will be available by this spring for viewing. This massive undertaking encompassed the full cooperation of the staff at the S.C. Dept. of Archives and History. R&R couldn’t have accomplished this feat without their utmost support and encouragement! We began the process to digitize a few thousand records and we believe when complete the number will be in the neighborhood of some 200,000. As time permits, all the early survey cards will be available to enjoy on line at R&R. It just takes time.

R&R feels that these cards are a meaningful connection to the history of S.C. Of the more than 50,000 historic sites recorded, we ascertain perhaps 30 percent have been either destroyed or so heavily remodeled they are of little value and hold little resemblance to their original style. Though the survey was never intended as a preservation tool, it is now a remarkable bank of historic photographs and a means for R&R to build a statewide database connecting thousands of families to their homeplaces. Enjoy viewing the cards from pre-Hugo Charleston and the rural homesteads of Newberry County. It is simply amazing to witness the transformation of S.C. over the past forty years through the images soon to be available on R&R’s pages. Again, we thank the S.C. Dept. of Archives and History for making these available for everyone to enjoy!

As we end 2014, I want to introduce subscribers of the From the Porch, to a new feature, one of many, R&R is introducing and will showcase in 2015. Each week the newsletter informs you of new happens at R&R as well as dialogue on events and topics of interest. Mike Bedenbaugh’s contributions will also begin shortly. One of R&R’s wonderful volunteers has worked with Rock Hill designer, Barry Grant to brand a special feature the – This Building Has History stamp. R&R will be using this stamp and verbiage in numerous manners, all of which we hope will help you enjoy R&R to the fullest.

The This Building Has History stamp will appear on the weekly blog as a means of drawing your attention to the featured property and it will also appear throughout R&R’s sites to drive home the message that each and every building has a story to tell. By clicking on the stamp, users will be linked to pertinent information and featured properties. There are endless ways to enjoy learning of local history and R&R is only one of many fine sites offering ample opportunities to explore our rich heritage. We hope each time you see the stamp you will recognize that it hold a clickable or searchable feature to bring the user closer to historic data and genealogy associated with the structure. Click on the stamp and see one of our all-time favorites created in 2014.

In October of 2013, R&R’s current version was created and brought to life. Since that time, usage has increased some 300% and the FB page is nearing eight hundred likes. All of us involved in creating and sustaining the website are pleased, that subscribers and users of the site, are driving it to new levels of use and success. We sincerely appreciate your patronage and hope you will continue spreading the news about Roots & Recall in 2015. Happy Holidays!