Features, Mystery Photo

MYSTERY PHOTO: Now and then

Here’s an interesting shot of an old building.  What and where was it way back – and what is it being used for now?  Send your name, hometown and guess to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

Last week’s mystery, “Old white building,” once was more commonly known as “The Pink Palace” after renovations in the 1950s.  Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, wrote the photo showed the old Orangeburg County Jail, “a Civil War prison that was built in 1860 and then used during the civil war as the Orangeburg headquarters for [Union] General William Sherman during the Union occupation of Orangeburg in 1865.”

Penny Forrester of Tallahassee, Fla., wrote the building served as a jail until 1976.  Bill Segars of Hartsville tells us that the interior of the building was burned by Sherman, but later restored.  He says it’s empty today.

But perhaps the most interesting tale came from Pat Keadle of Wagener, who wrote, “My  grandparents, Townsend and Annie Sawyer Corbett,  ran the jail and during World War II, Mama stayed there and worked across the street while Daddy was in the Coast Guard at Hilton Head riding horses to look for Nazi subs.”  Her relative Debbie Ballentine also wrote that the same grandparents ran the jail.

Others who identified the palace were: George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Barry Wingard of Florence; Elizabeth Jones, Vicki Ringer and Jay Altman, all of Columbia; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; Peggy Morrow of Lake City; and Steve Willis of Lancaster.

  • 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.
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