One fine morning during the Good Girls road trip, we stopped
by the
Olde English District Visitors Center,
a place right off the highway. We found scads of brochures touting any and
everything you might want to do in the state plus a delightful collection of South Carolina made
items, pottery, jewelry, photographs and such. The collection of cookbooks
was quite wonderful and we succumbed to
Dori Sander's
Country Cooking, teased
by the chapter on cooking and baking with peaches.
On to
Lancaster, South Carolina, known as the Red
Rose City,
after England's
House of Lancaster for whom the flower was a symbol in the War of the Roses. The
town was established in 1785 by British settlers who moved south from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Today, you'll find many red rose bushes planted in the downtown district.
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Sculptor Bob Doster |
We first stopped in to meet a famous resident and sculptor,
Bob Doster. Bob is a very friendly, down to earth guy. His Backstreet Studio is
housed in a row of formerly derelict buildings with an art-strewn garden out
back. The brightly painted interior bursts with stunning paintings, sculpture
and other objects d'art.
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Doster's Workshop |
Doster works with metal, mostly reclaimed metal and his next
door workshop is a hodgepodge of scraps, saws, clamps, and soldering irons. Bob
is a man with big vision and he produces some monumental works. His pieces are placed
all over the South in sculpture gardens, on downtown streets and outside banks.
One is a 40-foot high rocket at the
Challenger
Learning Center in Columbia; another, a depiction of DNA strands in brass and
steel, is displayed in a five-story lobby at the University of North
Carolina.
Bob volunteers much of his time teaching children from
elementary to college levels. He guides the students through the process of
designing and drawing, then creating and installing a project.
We also met Bob's wife,
Cherry, a real dynamo. She is also
an artist and major advocate for the arts.
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Cherry Doster |
Cherry directs the Lancaster Council
on Arts and she took us for a quick driving tour, pointing out highlights
within the city and the Lancaster Wall of Fame. As always we were surprised to
learn unusual details about a place. Did you know this old textile town is the
place where all Duracell AA batteries in America are made and that a
Lancastrian,
Charles Duke, walked on the moon? More trivia facts for my brain!
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Lancaster Wall of Fame |
Soon we were off to sample some barbeque at
Pig-n-Vittles in
Pageland. The tiny hole in the wall restaurant (in the best sense of the
phrase) is the real deal. Great southern food at amazingly low prices cooked by
co-owner
Logan Ring. Don't miss this location or the award-winning one in Chesterfield.
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Pig-N-Vittles |
Following lunch we headed to
Cheraw, a town named for the
Indian tribe that inhabited the area in the early 1700's.
The town grew as a trading center. In the
1760's it was formally laid out with a gridded street system and later lined
with trees. The town green flaunts a collection of 19th century public
buildings including the Town Hall, Market Hall, a law office and the Lyceum.
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Beautiful Streets in Cheraw |
We
especially enjoyed the effervescent statue of
Dizzy Gillespie, who spent his
childhood here. We made a car tour around the streets passing some 50
antebellum and Victorian homes and Gillespie park containing a musical themed fence
made by Bob Doster.
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Statue of Dizzy Gillespie |
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Gillespie Park & Fence |
One of Cheraw's
treasures is
Old St. David's Episcopal Church, 1770, used by both the British
and separatists during the Revolutionary War and Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War. Soldiers from every
American War are buried in the surrounding cemetery. The interior, open by
appointment with the Cheraw Visitors Bureau, is simple and elegant. The box
pews and pulpit are reconstructions. The steeple was added in 1826. Today, the stately
church is home to many civic events and weddings.
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Old St. David's Church in Cheraw |
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Grave Marker in St. David's Cemetery |
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Interior of St. David's Church |
Historically, March, 1865, saw Cheraw become the unwilling
host to General William T. Sherman's Union troops. They amazingly left the town
buildings and homes alone because they liked them. We did, too, and encourage a
visit.
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Debi tried out the pulpit. |
Don't forget to stop in the
River's Edge Cheraw Bakery to taste homemade goodies that actually pass our stringent taste test. Yes, the
Good Girls award a thumbs up for the chocolate peanut butter and coconut cream
cakes.
The handmade quilts are also
worth a look.
|
Cheraw State Park golf course. |
Before returning we drove around
Cheraw State Park
that contains another hidden gem: an 18-hole championship golf course with a
full service pro-shop.
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