The John Woodward Funeral Home moved into the building that was once the Providence Hospital, one of the Black hospitals in Spartanburg, in 1945. The family business began in 1916 at the suggestion of J. F. Floyd of Floyd Mortuary to serve the Black families in the area. Their first location was on Wofford Street. It’s the oldest African American owned business in Spartanburg and one of the oldest businesses in town. It is still family-owned and operated.
Pinkney “Pink” Anderson (1900-1974) was a blues artist born in Laurens County, South Carolina. By the age of 14, he joined Dr. William Kerr of the Indian Remedy Company to entertain crowds as part of the medicine show circuit. Medicine shows often consisted of musical acts, circus sideshows, ventriloquists, and magicians who enthralled crowds while “doctors” would sell magical elixirs.
Anderson became quite known in the medicine show circuit. He recorded an album in the 1960s. Unfortunately, he had a stroke that limited his abilities in the late 1960s. Anderson passed away in 1974.
Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd was inspired to create the band’s name by combining the first names of Pink and Floyd Council, another blues musician.
Until the last few years, Pink’s home still stood in Spartanburg.
The Dean Street School was built in the 1890s in the heart of the middle-class Black neighborhood that developed around Dean Street. Originally a white wooden school, the brick was added to the facade in the 1930s.
The school was named the Alexander School after the long-serving principal, R. M. Alexander, who was in that role from 1895 to 1929. It served as the school for Black schoolchildren until the 1960s when Spartanburg schools finally began integrating.
In 1990, the Epsilon Nu chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity purchased the building. They restored the school, and it is now their local fraternity headquarters.
I’ve been unable to locate the history of the church. I suspect it was started as a freedman church during Reconstruction.
A private residence now, this home began as a lodge and tavern in 1808. Anthony Foster Jr. started to build the home in 1801. The bricks of the home were made by the people that the Foster family enslaved. It was a well-known stagecoach stop, and it was the last stop before people would head to the Glenn Springs resort town.
As a kid growing up in Spartanburg, there were always stories of this place being haunted. As an adult, I don’t believe in the existence of ghosts, but I remember peering out the car windows and looking up at the house to see if a ghost would appear. I never saw one, but I had many friends who claimed they did.
The home is in amazing condition which is a testament to the people who built this home. Another remarkable aspect of this home is that it has been continuously occupied since 1808. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
Jammie Seay was a Revolutionary War soldier from Virginia who relocated to Spartanburg after the war. The Seay House was built sometime between 1780-1800. It is the oldest house in the Spartanburg city limits. The rear ell and porch were later additions.
