Society celebrates 'Little Green Mill House'

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The little green house sitting on the property where Clarendon Baptist Church sits in Alcolu looks new, but it isn’t. One of the few remaining mill houses left from the early 20th century was moved several hundred feet earlier this year from its original spot on Hotel Street, and members of the Alcolu Preservation Society came together Saturday to honor the building’s complete renovation. “We’ve been working now about five months to get ready for this,” said Russell Harrelson. “This was quite an undertaking, but it’s been a lot of fun. There’s been a lot of fellowship. We’ve learned to work with each other and love one another.” Harrelson said the building was donated by its owner, Wilma Harper, who was in attendance Saturday. “She was an Alcolu resident, born and raised here, and she gave us the house,” Harrelson said in January while Joe Powell House Moving of Kingstree worked painstakingly on moving the building down Main Street. Society President Janice Richburg said the group always planned to restore the building to its “1930s, 40s or 50s condition.” “I think we succeeded,” she said gleefully on Saturday. “You will just be amazed by the inside of this home.” Some of the items in the home include those once on display at the Clarendon County Museum and History Center in Manning. “One of our concerns was that room transitioning to something else, and we didn’t want all those relics to be scattered once again,” Richburg said. “So, we have fixed up this old mill house and now have a place to store them. We want this to operate like a museum.” Society member Jewell Brown said the group has about 15 members, but that more than 100 inactive folks helped donate the $4,000 to move the building to the church. Even more money and furniture was donated to complete the renovation. “We all worked for months on this project,” Brown said. “Everyone helped as much as they could.” Violet Carter Moody agreed. “We are thankful for the donations that helped us get the building up and functioning again,” she said. Clarendon Baptist Church Mike DeCosta said church leaders allowed the group to move the building on church property because “it’s important to remember your history.” “The church is a large part of this community’s history,” he said. That history started with the Alderman family, who founded the town in the 1880s and founded a sawmill a few years later. The mill provided employees with housing and Alcolu-specific money that could be used at the community’s general store. “This is one of the few mill houses left from that time,” Richburg said. “There is one across the street from where this one sat, and that was one we also looked at moving.” Brown said that home, however, was in “a little bit more bad shape than the one we’re moving.” “That’s actually the one I wanted to move, because it reminds me of the houses we grew up in,” she said. “But it was in worse shape. I hope someday that we can save that one, too.” Richburg said the current home looks much like it did when a family would have lived in it in the early 20th century. “We hope to have the building open at least one day each week,” she said. “We’re thinking Wednesday afternoons, but we would love to have tours by appointment as well.”