Month: July 2017

  • Brief History of Darlington County Historical Commission

    At the Commission, there are roughly 750,000 photographs, 50,000 negatives, 1 mile of flat stock documents, and one Bible that is over 373 years old.

  • Spotlight On: Darlington Memorial Cemetery

    Located on Avenue D and Friendship Street in Darlington, the Darlington Memorial Cemetery was the first cemetery created for African-Americans in the community. The cemetery began in 1890 as a five-acre cemetery established by Macedonia Baptist Church and African-American citizens in Darlington. In 1946, Bethel A.M.E. Church and St. James Methodist Church established cemeteries across…

  • Spotlight On: Arthur W. Stanley, veteran, activist, and councilman

    Arthur W. Stanley, a native of Darlington, was a WWII veteran. He served in the Pacific Theater. Stanley was the president of the Darlington Chapter of the NAACP and held the position for 40 years. He led the efforts to desegregate the Darlington County Public School System as a plaintiff in Stanley v. Darlington County…

  • Spotlight On: Dr. Daniel Collins

    Dr. Daniel Collins, a Darlington native, was a 1932 graduate of the Darlington County Public Schools. He attended Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, where he received a B.S. degree in science and a D.D.S. degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He also obtained a master’s degree in dental science from Guggenheim Clinic in…

  • Spotlight On: Mayo School

    From “Introduction: A History of Mayo School” About the year 1890, public education in Darlington County was started for African-Americans. One of the early buildings which the state and county used for education of African-Americans was located on Pearl Street in front of the old Charles estate, now Darlington Motel. Later in the year of…

  • Spotlight On: Honorable Richard H. Humbert

    Born in Charleston, Richard H. Humbert was a devoted resident of Darlington County. A former slave who taught himself to read and write, Humbert wrote his own pass for freedom. He was an active member of the South Carolina Republican Party and an organizer for African-Americans in 1868. In a letter to Governor R.K. Scott…

  • Prestwood Country Club was founded

    On July 3, 1914, the Prestwood Country Club in Hartsville, South Carolina, was founded. We here at DCHC are dedicated to promoting the rich and varied history of Darlington County. So if you enjoy our posts, please Like us on Facebook by clicking here. And, by all means, follow our blog as well.

  • Firsthand accounts of Park Terrace Hotel fire, 1968

    After six decades in operation, the Park Terrace Hotel, a grand old edifice on the corner of Main and Orange Street in downtown Darlington, burned down on the day before Thanksgiving in 1968. There were a total of twenty-one guests at the time of the fire, and four of them were killed: Marion Butler, Keith…

  • Black Creek Protection Association granted its charter

    On July 1, 1941, the Black Creek Protection Association was granted its state charter.  Woods Dargan, a native of Darlington, had a deep and abiding love for Black Creek, and, according to the Commission’s archives, he was the driving force behind the organization of the Black Creek Protection Association. This organization’s mandate was “to maintain,…