In many ways, good and bad, visiting Saluda was a lot like being at home. Before Saturday, my ventures into Saluda had mostly involved passing through there to get somewhere else. The only time I can remember being there for a reason was to cover a high school football game or two. I got an eyeful of the county at-large as we drove to Aiken earlier in the day. Most of what I saw would lead many people to declare that there’s nothing there. I disagree…when I see cows behind old barbed wire fences with well-weathered posts, fields and woods and ponds, I tend to think everything is there. It reminds me of where I grew up. It’s peaceful, mostly unspoiled, blissfully undeveloped and 100 percent unpretentious. Just the land like God laid it out with not much else visible but the road ahead and a few homes here and there backed way up off of it. Saluda has some interesting history, boasting as natives two people who died in The Alamo (James Bonham and William Travis) and the Saluda Old Town Site. Archeological remains indicate the site was occupied a few thousand years ago and it was the site of a 1755 treaty signing recognizing the sovereignty of the King of England (whose tail we totally whipped in a war a few years later) over Cherokee lands. In downtown Saluda, there is a mural indicating you are 10 miles from the Saluda Old Town Site. So I was just a short ride away from being able to walk my dogs on the Old Town Road. I could’ve walked them ‘till I couldn’t walk…I’m embarrassing myself and will stop now. It was getting up on 7 o’clock by the time we pulled into a bank parking lot just off the downtown business district in the Town of Saluda. A couple of things grabbed me right away. There is a nice little square with a clock and a beautiful courthouse and library in downtown. I’d like to tell you about the architecture of the courthouse and library and some of the other nicer buildings I saw, but I know my limitations. In my pay-the-bills job of being a newspaper editor, I have to help provide content for a “homes” section once a year…and I suck at it. I don’t know how to explain columns and arches and brick facades and landscaping and stuff other than to say “man, that sure is purdy.” Take my word for it, they have a nice courthouse and library. There are some features present in Saluda that bigger towns would kill for. The sidewalks are actually elevated a few feet above the street, high enough to require a guardrail in places. It’s different and stands out a bit. The Saluda Theatre is just off Main. It is on the National Historic Register, having been constructed in 1936 and could be a real showpiece, what with its two stories of stuccoed, Art Deco exterior masonry (I totally had to look that up). The classic marquee sign even remains intact. But just like the town I work in (Chester, which boasts jaw-dropping history, architecture and the distinction of having its downtown built on a steep hill), it looks like they are struggling to take advantage of those positives. For the duration of our walk, which lasted 25 or 30 minutes, we passed exactly one person. So, on Saturday evening, when a good local restaurant or bar would have a line out the door, there was zero foot traffic (or conventional traffic). That I saw, there was one business open, that being a restaurant sporting a “C” sanitation score from DHEC (salmonella ain’t a sauce, y’all). I’m guessing Saluda is in the same boat a lot of small, southern towns are in. When the mills started closing, it took jobs away from the people who bought clothes and insurance and groceries and appliances in downtown businesses. The folks who ate scrambled eggs and drank coffee in the same booth in the same cozy little hometown restaurant every morning had to move elsewhere to find work. You then have a lot of people (and businesses) who just don’t want to pay county and city taxes anymore, so they migrate further and further away from what once was sort of their ecosystem. Customer base gone, a lot of business flee downtown or close outright. There weren’t as many empty buildings in Saluda as some other downtowns I travel through, but many of those storefronts that used to sell something or offer a service are now populated by charitable groups or churches. Church and charity aren’t bad things, certainly, they are among the best of things, but they are also nonprofits that don’t pay taxes. Eroding tax base gives small towns fewer and fewer resources with which to fix things up, capitalize on strengths and do things to draw people back to the old business district. Even if a business would want to come there, where would they locate, since so much space is occupied with nonprofits? It’s a vicious cycle that is hard to stop once its begins rolling downhill. I don’t want to sound completely like Captain Bringdown here. Maybe you get a different vibe if you walk through there during business hours. There’s a multi-cultural presence and the downtown has some nice features. My dogs didn’t have any complaints. As she had been earlier in the day, Gracie was still not being cooperative on the picture front, but Tucker posed in front of the library and theatre. Without traffic or people or other pets, it was quiet and pleasant. Just like home…in a good way.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
Categories |