1930s Postcard Accordion
This postcard accordion was received in November of 2022 with a donation of three Lander College yearbooks from the early 1930s. The yearbooks were donated by Jane McGahee and belonged to her grandmother, Miss Clara Bobo of Clinton SC, a student at Lander during that time.
The accordion is addressed to Miss Sarah Bobo in Union SC. A 2005 obituary in the Index Journal describes Clara and Sarah as sisters. Sara Bobo was in the Lander senior class of 1930. Clara Bobo was in the Lander senior class of 1934.
Click on the images for a larger view and more information.
Most images of the original Greenwood campus show all three buildings or highlight the iconic tower. This postcard showcases Willson Hall with the tower in the background.
After Williamston Female College moved to Greenwood in 1904, the school was renamed Lander College and Dr. John O. Willson, Samuel Lander’s son-in-law (married to Kathleen), became the first president at the Greenwood campus.
At commencement in 1911, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for a new dormitory to be to be named Willson Hall and joined to the NW end of Laura Lander Hall. Laura Lander, the widow of Samuel Lander, officiated.* Willson Hall was dedicated on Sunday, February 11, 1912.**
*The Story of Lander: 1872-1922, author unknown, p. 17
**Greenwood Daily Journal, 10 Feb 1912, p. 1
The original Oregon Hotel was built in 1898 and named after the battleship made famous during the Spanish American War. The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1912 and a more modern replacement was opened across the street from the original site in 1914. This image is of the 1914 building.
This angle faces NE with what is now Maxwell Avenue running to the right. The street running to the left is now a parking lane. Attached to the hotel on the far right is the National Loan & Exchange Bank on the corner of what is today Main and Maxwell.
The hotel closed in 1963 and the renovated structure, along with what was the National Loan & Exchange Bank, is now known as the Greenwood building.
This image is of the second Oregon Hotel, built in 1914. The original Oregon Hotel was built in 1898 and named after the battleship made famous during the Spanish American War. It was destroyed by fire in 1912 and a more modern replacement was opened in 1914. The hotel closed in 1963 and the renovated structure is now known as the Greenwood building. This perspective of the hotel faces SE.
The short structure to the right is across the street from the main entrance to the hotel on what is now Maxwell Avenue.
"The new Oregon cost approximately $110,000 exclusive of the furnishings. The building is five stories, has 86 bed rooms, each equipped with a private telephone, hot and cold water and a majority with private bath, two ladies' parlors, a spacious lobby and office and a private dining room in addition to the regular dining room, which is one of the most elaborately fitted up in the state."
Greenwood Daily Journal, 14 Nov 1914, p.5
This view of the plaza, facing W, can be seen along the side view of the hotel (above).
This view faces east. The back of the US Post Office, now the Arts Center of Greenwood, can be seen in the background to the left. The automobile is driving along the aptly named Oregon Avenue.
The following description was published a few days before the opening of the rebuilt hotel.
"The mezzanine lobby windows are beautiful with sun-fast drapery and the furnishings is French gray willow chairs with green Spanish leather cushions."
Greenwood Daily Journal, 14 Nov 1914, p.5
The following description was published a few days before the opening of the rebuilt hotel.
"[The dining room] is one of the most elaborately fitted up in the state. Mr. Brinson has paid especial attention to the furniture, trimmings and color schemes in the dining hall, the mezzanine, balcony and lobby.
The dining room has the semi-indirect lighting system on walls and tables. The trimmings are old ivory with cream colored ceiling and rich brown walls and columns. There are two of 8 windows in the room 15 feet wide, furnishing excellent lighting arrangements. The floor is hardwood with maroon red runners and rugs of Bundhar wilton. The windows are treated with valance with gold and braid, each curtain finished with the monogram "O.H." The private dining room is finished with the same decorations. The furniture is mahogany, each table having an ornamental electrollier."
Greenwood Daily Journal, 14 Nov 1914, p.5
The following description was published a few days before the opening of the rebuilt hotel.
"French gray willow chairs with green Spanish leather cushions is in the ladies parlor, where the window drapery is old rose to match the walls beautifully tinted in color."
Condensed from Greenwood Daily Journal, 14 Nov 1914, p.5
“An entirely unique feature of the hotel is the Oregon Farm, owned and operated on the edge of town on the New Market road by Mr. H. J. Brinson, the proprietor. Here he grows some of the finest crops in the State, the yields of corn and cotton being phenomenal. He also has a magnificent garden from which he gets vegetables for the hotel. He has a magnificent drove of fine hogs which furnish meat for the hotel and a fine herd of Jersy's to supply milk and butter. Chickens and turkeys are also raised, and with its beautiful fields always growing something and its fine barns, all modern in style and arrangements, the cattle, mules, orchards and vineyards, make a picture that fairly ravishes the eye.”
1910 Board of Trade booklet, cited in The Index Journal, 7 Nov 1953, p.4
A condensed version was published in the Greenwood Daily Journal, 31 Jul 1911, p.9
In 1925, the Oregon Farm had an inventory that included a herd of dairy cattle, nine head of sheep, six head of hogs, two bee hives, a 60 egg incubator and breeder, and a De Laval Cream Separator.
Index Journal, 31 Aug 1925, p. 7; 17 Sep 1925, p. 8
“A snake wrapped around the body of a turkey on the Oregon Farm, was shot to death and the turkey was left unscathed by a workman on the farm a few days ago. The turkey had been captured by the snake which had wrapped its coils about it and was slowly attempting to kill the turkey when the workmen interfered and killed the snake.”
Index Journal, 18 May 1923, p. 5
"[At the Oregon Farm] there is a beautiful grove and here picnic parties go for days’ rest and recreation.”
Greenwood Daily Journal, 31 July 1911, p. 9
"In addition, [at the Oregon Farm] Mr. Brinson has a fine grove where seats, springs, etc. are placed for picnic parties and here in the summer of 1910 he entertained the entire cadet corps of the Citadel and other guests, numbering over 350. Never before had one citizen entertained so large a body at one time as this, serving an excellent luncheon, the whole grove being decorated for the occasion."
1910 Board of Trade booklet, cited in The Index Journal, 7 Nov 1953, p.4
This is an image of the inside of the jacket of the postcard accordian. The beautiful images along with these impressive facts made this publication a nice souvenier as well as a professional promotional brochure.
"In 1891 the citizens in the town of Greenwood purchased the property of the girls school, united it with the boy's school, and organized the present system of public schools. On April 4, 1903, the school house burned . . . the trustees set to work to build another schoolhouse. A bond was authorized and the tax payers suggested that the location of the new school building be on Magnolia Street."
Index Journal, 12 Nov 1970, p. 8
The new building opened with an enrollment of 452* and by 1911 enrollment had grown 65% to 746.** A newspaper article that year described the building as "taxed to its utmost capacity." **
*Evening Index, 9 Nov 1905 / **Evening Index, 27 Apr 1911
The Magnolia Street School operated until 1961. After that, the facility was used for school districtic offices. The building was destroyed by fire on November 25, 1980.
Index Journal, 25 Nov 1984, p. 1
The Greenwood Hospital was built in 1911 on the corner of West Creswell Avenue and Edgefield Street. It had an Otis elevator, 22 private rooms, 3 large wards with 25 beds, 2 operating rooms, x-ray equipment, 2 reception rooms, a kitchen and dining room. Free medical care and 6 beds were available for needy patients. At the same time, a school for training nurses opened. It was called the Millwee School of Training for Nurses and operated until 1937 and then again for a short time during World War II.
The hospital was badly damaged by a tornado on April 16, 1944. The next day, Mr. James Self of the Self Foundation pledged to fund the construction of a new 100-bed hospital made of concrete and steel. A new, ultra-modern hospital with 179 beds opened in 1951. That building, named Self Memorial Hospital, formed the nucleus of what is now Self Regional Healthcare. Having been repaired after the tornado, the original hospital building was renovated to serve as a nurses dorm for the new hospital. The building housed 45 nurses. [Index Journal, 23 Oct 1951, p. 38; 10 May 1925, p. 49; 17 Apr 1944, p. 1; 17 Jun 1952, p. 1]
The School of Nursing at Lander University was established in 1953 as the Self Memorial Nursing Department of Lander College. It offered the first associate degree in nursing program in SC. This name recognized the critical support from the local hospital (now Self Regional Healthcare) that has benefited the program since its inception. [Lander University 2015 Self Study Report of CCNE Accreditation, p. 8]
Next to the 1911 hospital, a dormitory for nurses employed by the Greenwood Hospital was built in 1914. It had a sitting room, a lecture room, 7 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a large sleeping porch.
Index Journal, 10 May 1925, p. 49; 1 May 1951, p.13
Greenwood County was formed in 1897 from portions of Abbeville and Edgefield counties. The first courthouse, displayed in this image, stood from 1899 until 1967 when the current courthouse was built on the same site.
The Confederate Monument was unveiled on October 22, 1903. The pose of the soldier was taken from a photograph of a young soldier from Greenwood County who died in the war.
When the 1967 courthouse was built, the monument was moved from the front of the building on Monument Street to the side of the courthouse on Park Avenue.
Daily Index, 6 November 1902
Evening Index, 15 October 1903
Index Journal, 21 April 1967, p. 1
This view faces NW at the corner of Main Street and Maxwell Avenue.
The National Loan and Exchange Building was built in 1914. The Bank eventually failed and the building was purchased in the 1930s by a pharmacist named Samuel Hodges and it became known as the Hodges building.
Later, until the mid-1960s when Greenwood Mills bought the building, County Bank occupied the space. It is now known as the Greenwood Building. (cf. Index Journal, 25 Aug 1991, p. 15)
The building attached in the back to the left was the Oregon Hotel, also built in 1914.
The small building attached to the right is the current location of McCaslan's Bookstore.
On the far right of the image is the US Post Office, now the Arts Center of Greenwood.
The low set building on the far left was the Greenwood Grocery Company, a major supplier for the city and surrounding area.
The Southern Passenger Depot, built in 1903, was part of a major hub of railroad traffic in South Carolina: "Greenwood was once unquestionably a railroad town. The fact that five lines crisscrossed the county and converged in the town at one time is really rather remarkable, considering that Greenwood was not directly between any larger cities, except perhaps Greenville and Augusta."
Ann Herd Bowen (1992), Greenwood County: A History, p. 164.
The building was razed in 1952. Timbers and other materials from the depot were used in the construction the community building and swimming pool adjacent to Lander College (now Lander University).
Index Journal, 28 May 1952, p. 1.
By the late 1970s, Lander College took ownership of the community building and it was thereafter known as the Lander College Recreation Center. The ageing recreation center was razed in 2021 to make way for a new pool and pavilion. Ceiling beams in the old structure that had been reclaimed from the Southern Passenger Depot were salvaged and a very small section was given to the Lander Archives.
"At a meeting held in the court house last Friday evening the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce completed its organization by adopting a constitution and by-laws. . . . A committee was appointed with Dr. John O. Willson as chairman, to take such steps as may seem necessary towards securing a federal building." [John O. Willson was president of Lander College at the time.]
Greenwood Daily Journal, 29 November 1905, p.3
Barely over one year later, the U.S. Congress was persuaded to fund the construction of a federal building for Greenwood: "Congress, at the last session, made an appropriation of $60,000 for the purpose of erecting a public building in this city. . . . A federal building is badly needed in Greenwood. The post office has outgrown its present quarters. There are five rural carriers and four city carriers, besides the regular force of clerks, and the number of carriers must soon be added to in order to meet the growing business of the city."
The Evening Index, 03 January 1907, p. 1
The federal building opened in 1911 and housed new facilities for the Post Office. The structure was renovated in 2006 and now houses the Arts Center of Greenwood. https://discoversouthcarolina.com/products/26865
The rightmost building in this image is the west side of the Barksdale Building.
The building with the tallest appearing tower was the Greenwood Baptist Church. This structure was first occupied by the congregation in 1897. The church, now known as First Baptist Church, moved to its present location on Grace Street in 1956.
This view faces south from the Barksdale Building. The rightmost building is the Southern Railroad Passenger Depot and the building behind it is the Freight Depot. The railroad tracks ran on the other side of the depots.
The first paving on the square was laid down in 1910. Newspaper articles during the planning phase mention various options that were considered for the paving material: granitoid concrete, granite block, wood block, bitulithic paving, mineral asphalt, and vitrified brick. Vitrified brick was finally chosen.
According to historicpavement.com, "By 1900, vitrified bricks had become the most common type of street pavement. A vitrified brick is fired at a higher temperature and for a longer period of time than a conventional brick, making it harder and impervious to the absorption of water."
The beautiful plaza running through the center of the square was added at the same time as the paving project.
Thompson and Wade (2014), Images of America: Greenwood, Arcadia, p. 10.
Index Journal, 9 March 1910, p.4; 28 April 1909, p. 1
