Let us start by noting we don’t expect anyone to get this week’s mystery. But because it’s one of the oddest things we’ve seen in a long time, we thought you would get a giggle or feel a little nauseous when seeing it. Nevertheless, it’s somewhere in Charleston County. But specifically, where? (It’s pretty easy to figure out the why.)Send your name, hometown and guess to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s photo, “Another big brick building,” was Johnson Hall, as several people noted, on the Winthrop University campus.
“It is an old photograph,” said Julia Longshaw, who works at Winthrop. “We used to put up international flags around the campus but have had to discontinue the practice. One of those flags is visible in the photo.”
David Lupo of Mount Pleasant tells us that building started in 1902: “The state provided 20% of the funds, Winthrop president David Bancroft Johnson obtained a pledge of $50,000 from John D. Rockefeller, and the YWCA worked to raise the remaining funds. Rockefeller later contributed an additional $10,000 for a fireproof concrete design and $5,000 to cover the increased cost of materials due to World War I. The building was completed at a cost of $125,000 in 1920, and Winthrop students pushed to have it named for President Johnson.” An auditorium was later added and it was renovated in the 1990s.
Hats also off to Jay Altman and Elizabeth Jones, both of Columbia; Jacie Godfrey of Florence; Jeremy Winkler of Walhalla; Pat Keadle of Wagener; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Godfrey Kimball of Athens; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas.
- Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!