Category: City Of Darlington
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TODAY IN DARLINGTON COUNTY HISTORY: Johnny Mantz won first Southern 500
TODAY IN DARLINGTON COUNTY HISTORY: On September 4, 1950, Johnny Mantz of Long Beach, California, won the first Southern 500 in Darlington, S.C. He drove a 1950 Plymouth Coupe, and his First Place Prize was $11,500. The track had been built under the leadership of Harold Brasington. We here at DCHC are dedicated to promoting…
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Spotlight On: Yankee Hill
This hilly area was once used as burial ground for Union soldiers who died while garrisoned here at the end of the Civil War. 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…
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Spotlight On: Darlington Methodist Church
Now a private home, this first Methodist Church was built in 1834. During the Civil War, occupying troops were invited to attend the services as women sat on one side of the church and the men sat on the other. The carpenter who built the church later became a Baptist minister. This building served as…
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Spotlight On: St. John’s Elementary School
This site has been the home of a Darlington School since 1818. Originally built as the Darlington Academy, it is now occupied by the St. John’s Elementary School. According to local tradition, an early teacher who was also an ardent Mason named the school for the Apostle St. John who was believed to have belonged…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…