South Carolina has changed a great deal in the last 80-100 years. We’ve come a long way! Whether you were actually around back in the early 1900s, or not, you may find the following window into the past is a fascinating perspective.

1. A boarding house in Ashepoo, near the Ashepoo River.
Photogrammar/Marion Post Wolcott
This photo taken in 1938 shows two children on a small horse outside a boarding house. Boarding houses were common places to live throughout the U.S. until the 1950s.
2. Long before the world's only UFO Welcome Center was established in tiny Bowman, South Carolina, the general store in town would have been the spot where locals welcomed any curious aliens.
Jack Delano / Photogrammar
As seen in this photo, the long bench outside the store was quite the gathering spot in 1943! This, by the way, was taken 51 years prior to the construction of the still standing UFO Welcome Center.
3. Do you recognize any part of this photo taken around 1910 on Main Street in Greenville?
Wikipedia / Author Unknown
There was certainly a lot more room for cars way back then...
4. Christmas Day in 1938. Two fishermen gather on the docks in Charleston.
Marion Post Wolcott / Library of Congress / LC-USF34- 050820-E [P&P] LOT 1528
5. Curing tobacco leaves on a farm in Manning.
Marion Post Wolcott / Photogrammar / 1939
Since tobacco is often harvested in July or August, this would have been a very hot task in the sweltering summer sun.
6. Plowing a cotton field near Spartanburg in 1937.
Dorothea Lange / Photogrammar
In the early 1900s, South Carolina was one of the biggest cotton-producing states in the country.

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7. Edward and Julius Koester at Camp Jackson (now Fort Jackson) in Columbia in 1918.
Florida Memory - Wikimedia Commons
Camp Jackson was established in 1917 during World War I. It is now the largest basic combat training facility in America. More than 48,000 basic training trainees and 12,000 advanced training trainees pass through Fort Jackson each year.
8. A grand old house located on Ashwood Plantation in Darlington County.
Arthur Rothstein / Photogrammar
Ashwood Plantation was a settlement farm, a sponsored farm community, created for tenant farmers that were moved as part of the New Deal.
9. Today's computer lab could be compared to yesterday's typing class, seen here, photographed in 1937 in Darlington County.
Marion Post Wolcott / Photogrammar
10. And shop class? Well, it's still shop class, although some schools prefer to call it something like "industrial arts." This photo was taken at Ashwood Plantation in 1939.
Marion Post Wolcott / Photogrammar
Did your school have typing class and shop class?
11. A scene outside the BJ Brant General Store and Post Office in Ashepoo, South Carolina (located in the area of the Ace Basin).
Marion Post Wolcott / Library of Congress / LC-USF34- 050755-E [P&P] LOT 1528
December in South Carolina can be hit or miss when it comes to cooler weather. On this particular day in December 1938, the weather was mild enough to warrant not wearing a warm jacket.
12. Tobacco farming has long been a large part of South Carolina's agricultural crops.
Photogrammar / No Photographer Credited
In this photo from 1938, farm workers string tobacco to get it ready to hang out to cure.
13. The ruins of an old abandoned plantation house near Monticello in 1939.
Marion Post Wolcott / Photogrammar
Abandoned homesteads in South Carolina are a haunting scene that we still seek out today, as if looking into the past could help understand what's ahead in our future.

South Carolina’s history may not run long in comparison to other places around the world, but our story runs deep, especially in the hearts of true South Carolinians. What other things do you recall from the early to mid-1900s? Shout them out in the comments.

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