This is a straightforward Greek Revival Style wood frame building. Several miles further up, also on the north side of the highway, is the old Zion Methodist Church. The building is now owned by the Gray family, who own the surrounding farmlands. However, in this area they thought coffee and a cafe would be more successful. They were a British couple, and initially wanted to set up a tearoom. According to information on, the diner was built around 1950 by Emily and Fredrick Griffin. On the north side of the highway is the Coffee Pot Diner. Everything seemed to be in good order, but there was no activity, and there were no people.īack on 301, the miles of farmland roll past without much break until you near the community of Cordova. When I visited in 2012 it was like stepping back in town. The store has been preserved by members of the Vallentine-Cope family, and is open for tours upon request if you call ahead. In 1911 he built a general store to serve the community. Near the depot and along the tracks is the ginning facility built by J. The depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. However, the depot was still active through the 1960s for transporting cotton. Passenger rail traffic died out as more people to to automobiles along highways like 301. A gin and a depot for transporting the cotton by rail making up its most important buildings. Established in 1894 by Jacob Martin Cope, the town was built around cotton farming. Just a couple of miles from the river is the turn off for the town of Cope.Ĭope sits about a mile of of Highway 301. Having merged with US 601 just south of the town of Bamberg, the two highways run concurrently through Orangeburg. The construction of I-95 caused many of the amenities to close, and many now sit abandoned along the 301 corridor.ģ01 enters Orangeburg County from Bamberg County at the South Edisto River bridge. A business association formed, designating the route as The Tobacco Trail because large portions of it passed through tobacco producing regions. Lots of mom-n-pop motels, diners, and service stations popped up along the route to cater to these travelers. Travelers liked this route better because it bypassed major metropolitan areas, and was considered a quicker route. Highway 301 used to be one of the main north-south routes, connecting Baltimore, Maryland with Sarasota, Florida. This bit of the tale uses photos from that trip, so older shots I had of the stretch, and combines those with photos I took this week. I had only made it part of the way into Orangeburg when I had to cut my trip short. Yesterday I was able to go knock out another huge chunk of the highway. I was able to get through about a third of Orangeburg when we had a death in the family. So far I had traveled across two South Carolina counties on The Tobacco Trail, aka US Highway 301.
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