There are a few places in this country where time seems to stand still and the back roads of South Carolina is one of them. While traveling south from Columbia, SC I decided to get off the big road and travel down Highway 321, also known as Savannah Highway. There were some interesting town names on the highway so what the heck. I mean, who wouldn't want to visit North, South Carolina. The town was named after a John North, one of three men who donated land to start the town in 1891 and prospered from the cotton trade.
We then passed through Norway and stopped in Denmark, SC. Seeing as my grandfather was a Danish immigrant I thought it was kind-of cool to visit. It is another town that is stopped in time and very retro. My kind of place! I never heard of Denmark, SC but found out it is the location of the first transcontinental phone call made in this country from the AT&T building in 1915. The town, though, was not named after the country but a Captain Denmark who was an official with the South Bound Rail Road Company that built the railroad into the town in 1833. No wonder I didn't see any Danish flags flying around the area. Oh, and hit up the Freezie Breezie in an old converted gas station for some sandwiches and ice cream. One of my favorite buildings was the surviving Gulf Oil gas station that was saved and converted into a dry cleaners.
New meets old with cell phone antennas on the old water tank in Denmark.
The old railroad station.
The historic Diner.
Brookers sells everything from hardware to fine china.
Pooles still has the old fashioned candy counter inside.
The little town of Olar south of there had a couple old gas stations that haven't been touched in years. And just south of there on Bufords Bridge Highway at the intersection of Carolina Highway is a great old abandoned truck stop and an old motel. At one time this was a much more heavily traveled highway before the interstate system came.
A remnant from the Golden Age of gas station architecture.
I love seeing these old towns that seem to be stuck in a time warp. Some are just shadows of the past and barely able to hang on while others embrace the past and capitalize on it.
