Mark's Photo Travels

In Tigerville Trek , Tom Taylor and I hit many of my most wanted targets on the list that day, but not all. I took those most wanted targets, added a few more I found in various sources, and took a brief cruise around Taylors and Greer yesterday to visit them all. First stop today was Foothills Vocational Center, located off of Saint Mark Road in Taylors. From 1954-1970, this was Lincoln High School , a segregated high school for African-Americans. The school was closed because of integration in 1970, and in 1972 the site became Foothills Vocational Center. The name would later change to Foothills Career Center, then Foothills Career and Technology Career Center as times and needs changed. The site closed in 2001 and the career center relocated to the site of the old Greer High School. This history summarized from Jean Martin Flynn's book  An Account of Taylors, 1817-1994  (just re-read) and Executive Summary J. Harvey Bonds Career Center (PDF format). The roadside ne...

I do confess: I love peaches! So yesterday, I took advantage of the season to buy a peck of locally grown peaches at Taylor's Orchard peach shed, a long-time fixture in Greer operated by  Fisher's Orchard  since 1997. While I was out and about I decided to take advantage of some free time to take photos of some of the small changes I've noticed in Taylors in the past few months. Update: The peach shed is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places . A few weeks ago, I noticed CSX railroad workers removed some of the cross-ties and have yet to replace them. I thought I'd be neat to take a photo before work on the bridge has been completed. I parked at nearby Covenant Community Church  on East Main Street and walked the short distance to the viaduct. No services or other activities were being held that day, otherwise I would have parked farther away to stay out of their way. At one time, this building was home to Stephenson Memorial United M...

Suber Mill, the historical marker, and a grinding stone On June 5, 2012, a historical marker was dedicated at Suber Mill near Greer, South Carolina. I, of course, visited the site as soon as my schedule permitted to visit the marker and the mill. View Larger Map Suber Mill is one of the few water-powered mills still operating in South Carolina (open Monday-Friday 8a-5p and a few hours on Saturday).  The mill is located on Princess Creek, a branch of the Enoree River and grinds corn to produce cornmeal. The mill began as a saw mill operated by James Suber before the Civil War, with a grist mill added after the Civil War. The current mill was built between 1909 and 1912 by Walter Suber, the son of James Suber. After taking what I though were my last photos of the trip, I noticed some electric lines crossing Suber Mill Road using insulators exactly matching the ones on the DC electric lines on the abandoned Piedmont & Northern poles in Taylors . ...

Today's mostly cloudy skies that ran contrary to the weather forecast meant I had to postpone my photo trek plans, so instead I stayed close to home and visited Gilreath's Mill. Gilreath's Mill is one of the select few water powered mills still standing in Greenville County, ensuring its historic status . Depending on the owner at the time, the mill has also been known as Bruce's Mill, Heller's Mill, Taylor's Mill. Joel Bruce built what is now known as Gilreath's Mill as a corn mill sometime between when he bought the property in 1801 and the first contemporary account of the mill in 1839, with tradition giving a date of 1814. The property would pass on to John Heller, and then  Washington Taylor in 1840. In 1890, P. D. Gilreath took over the mill property and began producing wheat flour in place of corn flour. The mill would remain in the Gilreath family until transferred to the Gilreath Mill Foundation in 2007, with the rest of the property subdiv...

Like Reid School Road, Ansel School Road also takes its name from a school that no longer exists. But unlike Reid School, the deed recording the buying of property for the school is available. A deed recorded October 13, 1896 in deed book  EEE, page 324  transfers one acre of land from S. D. Mosteller to Ansel School District "only for school purposes for educating white children" and also grants the school use of a well in the northeast end of the property. On September 26, 1919, the school district added more land to the school property by buying another acre from S. D. Mosteller. According to the deed in book 230, page 492 , the property was sold off to the highest bidder at auction on January 27, 1951 to an M. A. Mason. The property would later be divided into two lots, and the names of the roads passing by and near the school property would be altered. Tracing the subsequent owners of the land forward in time shows that the location of the school was near the interse...