Wondering about some part of your family or community history?  Well, it may be a good time for you to do a little research and find out the answers to your questions.  Online research is fun and easy on Ancestry or some other site, but getting out and taking it another step to the Carolina Room at the Greenville County Library or the research room at the Laurens or Anderson libraries will provide some surprises and pass a hot summer day quickly.

I had been putting off a trip to the Greenville County Carolina Room for a while, but finally made a day of it this week.  I thought I was familiar with the collections they had, but amazingly several new collections are being added to the scanned documents and photos on their webpage.  I was able to delve into some new collections of photos and letters (Cleveland and Woodside families) that added to my cache of information on topics I have held stagnate for some time.  The archivists there were soooo helpful!  It was like opening a treasure box! 

I also found some old maps that were valuable to understanding the road changes over the years and the folks who lived along them.  Those maps are online for the library shares almost everything freely.

Now to the restoration projects in the county that I’m thrilled to say are moving forward!  Although Jones Mill had a scary fire, the damage can be repaired readily and will not be a major setback.  The newly acquired property of Chick Springs in Taylors is the culmination of about twenty years of negotiations with the Bull family by several entities in the county.  Taylors Town Square will be working on the site in the near future. 

The Piedmont YWCA History Museum is being restored and moving into the final stages.  The house has been rewired, replumbed, and new HVAC is in the process.  Flooring is going to be the next problem.  There were three layers of hardwood, and when some walls were removed to return the area to the original, the floors no longer matched on the top layer.  Some areas under the baths were rotten.  This work is extensive.  But the elevator will be accomplished by fall which is a blessing for us to maneuver the three floors.  With some luck we hope to be moving the museum collections in by late fall and decorate for Christmas with holly wreaths.

The 1812 McCullough House near Princeton has had a brick lift.  The handmade brick with soft limestone mortar has been being restored by the most amazing masons for over six months.  They have touched every brick on the exterior of the house at least once, removing damaged brick, replacing them with new handmade ones of the same color, rebuilding chimneys, window and door openings, and the cornices along the top of the walls.  Much of the mortar has been replaced as well.  Thanks to these professionals, McCullough House will stand at least another hundred years, maybe two.  The next steps will be to restore or replace the old windows with shutters, and then rebuild the original front double porch.  We hope to have those completed by fall at which point the back porch can be constructed and the roof can be replaced.  We anticipate another eighteen months to two years to complete the project and open the house to visitors.

Please keep checking on these projects on Facebook at Fork Shoals Historical Society and Piedmont Historic Preservation Society pages.

Anne Peden, PhD
Greenville County Historic Preservation Commission
Fork Shoals Historical Society
Piedmont Historical Preservation Society●