A Day of History

I have so much to write tonight. I think I could write a book. Cari, Brenna, and I went exploring today. It was a place I had driven through a few times. I always thought they had some cool buildings in town. This morning I got up and loaded a few geocaches into the GPS for the Pelzer, SC area. It turns out that wasn't necessary, because once we got out there and started exploring this tiny town, I forgot all about geocaching. The history in this town is amazing.

The town was started by Pelzer Manufacturing Company in 1881. They built a textile mill on the river. By the early 1900's the company had built 1,000 homes, five churches, two schools, a library, a dam, and multiple factories. At one point, around 1895, Thomas Edison showed up and witnessed a hydro electric station start up. He helped the company to become among the first in the state to have electric lights in their buildings. They were also among the first mills powered by electricity. They continued growing and would end up building four textile mills in the area.

Once Cari and I got home from our trip today I started working on Google. I had never worked this hard on researching anything when I was in school.

The Pelzer Manufacturing Company owned all the land and all the houses. Everyone that worked there, lived in company owned homes. They made purchases at company owned stores. They went to the churches built by the company. The company even trained their own militia. This was common in the South during the textile mill era. One thing I read today said that over 90% of people in the South lived in a home owned by their employer. Pelzer was one of the largest developments of its kind. .

By the mid 1930's the company was bought out by Yankees (Bank of Boston). It was downhill from there. Strikes, gun battles, lynching of blacks, horrible sanitation, and the depression was just a few of the things I read about.

As you drive around the town you see buildings that have been standing since beginning. Within the past five years, they have started removing some of the production buildings no longer being used.

Here's a handful of photos with descriptions under each one:This is a shot of the dam. The original dam was built in 1881. I didn't find any info about rebuilding this dam or altering it. I don't really know the age of this actual structure. Some of the top sections were made of stone and I believe most of it is original materials. If you look down the center of the photo, you will see circle supports in the water. This was the line of the old bridge. I was standing on a tore up road when I took this. The road continued directly across from me. The NEW bridge is to the left.

This was taken near the bridge where the power plant is. You can see the new bridge in the background. Notice this does not produce power anymore. The mills are gone. All the wires have been cut and the transformers removed. The turbines still generate power, but not to this site. There was a lot of No tresspassing signs up that made me nervous. Funny how a plastic sign can do that to you.

I was still standing where the power plant is located for this shot. Turbine building is located to the left. An empty field sits where the production building once stood. The large building in the background is a warehouse that I would later sneak into. No pictures of that. But I did take a pinch of polyester fabric out of an old bale while I was in there.

This is the front of Pelzer Presbyterian Church. This is one of the five churches built by the mill. This is the original structure. A Sunday school area was built in 1905 at the back. Other than that, it has not been changed since 1896. It's on the National Historic Register.This house is just down the street from the church. I believe from what I read today that this house was lived in by the president of the company. Mr. Smyth.
Driving around the old mill village we came across this building. The old train depot. You can see it needs a few repairs.This building really caught my attention as we were walking today. There was another just like it next door. I believe these buildings to be original to the mill. They were located directly across the street from the mill and one block over from the church. One book I read today described the company stores as white buildings. This may be one of them. They were not very large. Several windows have been busted out and the door was cracked open. I didn't go in.

This was a shot looking inside a busted window of the building above.
Later, when I snuck into the warehouse, I found a similar scene. Trash and office supplies left covering the floors. It's like they just went home on the last day of operation and nobody thought about cleaning the place out.

I took almost 100 photos in Pelzer today. I went home and learned a massive amount about this amazing tiny town. I'll happily go back anytime.