If you grew up in Spartanburg, this is the Krispy Kreme where you would pick up their delicious doughnuts. Located on Church Street, the building was opened in 1969 by Reverend Wilford W. Reese. When he passed away in 1979, his son, Glenn Reese, took over the franchise. Glenn Reese was also a teacher, basketball official, and a South Carolina senator. This location closed in 2005, and a new location was built across the street.
Since 1935, the See Rock City barns have decorated the rural landscape in the United States. This barn can be found in Bartow County, Georgia. The brainchild of the Rock City developer and owner, Garnet Carter, he hired painter Clark Byers to travel the United States seeking permission to paint “See Rock City” on barns. Owners were paid with free tickets to Rock City, promotional goodies, and some money with the guarantee the sign would be maintained. Byers painted over 900 barns in 19 states.
The number of barns began to decline during the 1960s when the highway beautification movement began. Legislation passed during Lyndon Johnson’s administration restricted billboards. Coupled with the developing interstate system, barns were often lost to development. In 2019, it was estimated that there were 250 barns left. Those barns still get a fresh coat of paint when needed.
In 2024, the state of Tennessee was working to get remaining signs listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This website is two and a half years old, but I have been photographing for several years, which means I made many posts this year that are not of images I took in 2023. This post highlights the most popular images that I took (or shared) and made posts of in 2023. It is a mixture of images I have taken or posts I have created out of public domain images. Click on the header above each photo to see the full post.
The photos I took in Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida didn’t gain traction like those in Georgia and South Carolina, most likely due to the sheer volume of photos I have taken in Georgia and South Carolina, which has created a larger following. I did want to share one of my favorites from a trip to Reliance, Tennessee.
Billy Carter (1937-1988) purchased the gas station in 1972. It became the town gathering place during Jimmy Carter’s campaigns. At its busiest, the service station sold more than 40,000 gallons of gas. Billy owned it for more than a decade. In 2008, the station was restored and reopened as The Billy Carter Museum.
Rankin’s Grocery is completely surrounded by development, but this much loved store hangs on in Anderson, South Carolina.
According to the Cinema Treasures website, the drive-in had one screen and could hold about 150 cars.
