Photo Potpourri: Conway, SC, Part III: Trees and the downtown

As frustrating as this part of my shoot in Conway, S.C., was on Nov. 18, I have to say I was awestruck by a few stately trees I came across along Main Street while on what I can best describe as a wild goose chase to find something I couldn’t find ... until we were in the car driving out of town, and passing it by in the process.

The tree in the lead-off photo is the most elegant of the trees I came across this day. The same tree from a closer vantage point appears below. If you’re not familiar with the sight of moss-festooned trees in the South, most often they are on old and branch-sprawling oaks. Another example appears in the second photo below.

On a stop at the city’s Visitors Center right after we arrived in Conway, we were encouraged to check out the city library and museum, which Hugh led us to believe was a very short walk west on Main Street from the visitor center.

I made two trips west on Main on foot, and did not find the two landmarks. I did find the two grand oak trees shown in the first photos, however, so the strolls were not a complete loss. But south of the Visitors Center on 5th Avenue was a church, First United Methodist, that I decided to photograph (it will be included in the next post). And across from it was a building identified as Horry County Public Library.

Well, I thought maybe this was what the Visitors Center guy was talking about. As I ascended the steps, I noticed there was the word “Administration” on a separate sign out front over the door. So I started thinking that maybe it wasn’t the place I wanted to go. But ... I went inside anyway and talked to a woman who greeted me after I had been inside for a couple minutes.

I told her a sign outside said “Administration” then asked if this was not also the library. She said yes. Maybe she misunderstood me. I related to her the conversation I’d had with the guy in the Visitors Center in which he also mentioned there was supposed to be a museum right next to the library. She told me the museum was back on Main Street, and like the guy in the Visitors Center, led me to believe it was a very short jaunt from here.

The last words she said to me were “If you walk past the bank, you've gone too far.”

Today, in extreme hindsight (which I didn’t grasp at the time), I guess she didn’t immediately realize that there were not one but TWO banks at the corner of 5th Avenue and Main Street just a half-block from where she and I stood. So when I left that building and walked past both banks (Southern State and Anderson Brothers) and didn’t see a museum or (another) library, I was in Confusion Hell. The below is the signage for the Anderson Brothers bank.

That’s when I started a second walk west on Main Street and went past the point where I had stopped on the first attempt. And after four blocks or so, I still didn’t see a museum or another library. I aborted the effort and reversed course to photograph other things. Along the way to my stopping point, I’d seen a sign indicating that there was a Baptist church somewhere south of where I was, so I walked south trying to find it, and again, no luck.

Of course, I should have pulled up a map on my cell phone, but by this point, I was sort of seething and frustrated, and it just didn’t occur to me.

After that, Lee Ann and I decided to check out the Riverwalk, stopping at a few places along the way, including the Kingston Presbyterian Church (which also will be featured in the next post).

The rest of the photos you see in this post were taken on a walk-around that I did before and after the Riverwalk and courthouses (the two previous posts).

As always, if you’d like to see a larger and sharper version of a photo, simply click on the image. To view a gallery of images taken in the downtown area of Conway, follow the link in this sentence.

Above: The Horry County Visitors Center, where this day’s odyssey began.

Above and below: The library administration building that I initially thought was the real library. It was not.

Above: An interesting house along Main Street that I came across while trying to find the real library and museum.

Above: A view of downtown looking east down Laurel Street from 5th Avenue, near the United Methodist Church.

Above: A house on (I think) Laurel Street whose red-leafed tree caught my attention.

Above: Just a slice of downtown commerce at 318 Main Street.

It’s darn near impossible to get head-on shots of City Hall from ground level because it is so close to the street and is elevated (probably a protection from Waccamaw River flooding during hurricanes). City Hall once served as the original county courthouse. I did manage to get the shots above and first two below. I should have tried to see if I could get into an upper floor of a building across the street for a more natural shot.

Conway’s theater (above) and one of several alleys or alley-adjacent civic utilization spots (below) featuring a mural of a train (depicted in more detail in photo higher up in the post).

Above: A squirrel figurine, past of the city’s “Conway Critters” outdoor art display project.

Above: If you can read the small type nest to the word “Taps” in the Palmetto Taps photo above, you can see this taproom promotes the fact that it is a self-serve operation. I’ve never been to or heard of a self-serve taproom, but I did find photos online of this place, which show a long row of walk-up taps with glasses underneath, presumably for customers to help themselves. It’s an interesting concept; I’d like to try it some time at a place that offers it.

Offices of the Horry County Historical Society (above) and Encore Gifts, Wine and Floral (below).

Above: A slice of the 1100 block of 3rd Avenue featuring Peony & Fig Floral Boutique.

Above: Groucho’s Deli at 219 Laurel St. caught my eye because I’m a longtime fan of the Marx Brothers. I’m sure Groucho Marx had nothing to do with this deli, but still ... the name is pretty distinctive. The deli is almost exclusive to South Carolina, where there are quite a few. There are also two in North Carolina (Charlotte and Statesville) and one in Georgia (Augusta).

At the Town Green, at 2nd Avenue and Laurel Street, they are setting up for the holidays, including the large ornaments above. Other decorations there can be seen in the second and third photos below.

Another building mural (above), another slice of Main Street (below) featuring Vanite Beauty Salon, and a view of the city administration building (second photo below), which the guy at the Visitors Center said is used for offices of municipal services such as utilities.