Congratulations to the Best of the Best winners of BladenOnline’s recent survey….
Did you know, at one time there was a railroad in Elizabethtown? The rails had been removed prior to my arrival in the early 60s…Apparently came from the west and either ended or crossed Peanut Plant Road near what is now Bladen Builders….
Greene Brothers has had a huge presence in the area for many years, including what appeared to be hundreds of Hertford cattle grazing in a green pasture underneath the pecan trees and surrounded by a white fence, across the street from the current Pizza Hut location on West Broad Street. Bladen Builders was in the building that is currently occupied by Pawn South, or nearby.
Along the way heading into town, (I will miss a few), Clark Tractor (sold Ford tractors), H.S. Johnson’s service station, Campbell Oil office, Robert Kinlaw’s Texaco station…and traveling east into the downtown area, The Rowe Theater, US Post Office on the corner (now CresCom Bank). Across the street was Elizabethtown Baptist Church, Clark Motor Company (Ford & Mercury) and Bank of Elizabethtown….My, my, lot’s of changes….over the years.
And nearly 60 years later, Kinlaw Furniture, Melvin’s and Leinwands may be the only businesses that continue to operate in the same location as then on West Broad Street, in the downtown area.
Others along the 100 block of West Broad Street at that time….Belks, Western Auto, Corbett’s Mens Store (maybe added later), Smith’s Drug Store, DeVane Jewelers, McGill’s Restaurant, Hutchinson Drug Store, Fowler-Simmons, Coles Feed and Seed, Bennett Stone Pharmacy, Collier Gas, Bladen Ace Hardware, Mann’s Department Store, Register’s 5 & 10 (not the entire list, just all I can remember). Seems Bill Ferguson had a service station on the corner or Broad and Poplar…..or nearby….(?)
More later maybe from yesteryear…..(my buddy and historical guru Lewis Smith will send me corrections and additions, and I appreciate)
Reporter: “How many people work at the Vatican?” Pope John XXIII: “About half.”
Groucho Marx: “I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception”
SC Senator Fritz Hollings when challenged by his Republican opponent, Henry McMaster: “I’ll take a drug test, if you’ll take an IQ test.”
robert g hester
910-876-2322
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