New museum will offer deep dive into history: Officials hold groundbreaking for Darlington County’s history museum
Brian Gandy, director of the Darlington County Historical Commission and Museum. PHOTOS BY BOBBY BRYANT
Groundbreakers at the ceremony included Gandy, County Administrator Charles Stewart, County Council Chairman Bobby Hudson, and Historical Commission Board Chairman Bill Segars (not in order). PHOTOS BY BOBBY BRYANT
Darlington Mayor Curtis Boyd was one of the speakers at the event. PHOTO BY BOBBY BRYANT
A crowd of about 150 people attended the groundbreaking. PHOTO BY BOBBY BRYANT
An architect’s drawing of the museum addition. PHOTO BY BOBBY BRYANT
By Bobby Bryant, Editor
editor@newsandpress.net
The way Brian Gandy figures it, Carolyn “Bet” Norment Phillips gave every Darlington County resident $62.85.
After her 2018 death, history lover Phillips bequeathed $4 million to the Darlington County Historical Commission, and the agency is using it to expand its Darlington headquarters into a museum to enrich all 63,000 or so county residents.
When officials held the groundbreaking for the project March 2, a chair at the front of the crowd of about 150 people was “reserved” for a photo of Phillips, and her name was often mentioned during the ceremonies.
Gandy, director of the agency now officially known as the Darlington County Historical Commission and Museum, told the crowd: “Today is a day to celebrate you. … (Phillips) didn’t care how old you were, or if you were at the precipice of death. When she died, she gave every one of you that ($62.85) for the purpose of amassing that money to build this museum.”
Gandy added: “We worked diligently over the past two and a half years to try to give you the most we can with that money. We think we’ve got a good product, and we think we’re going to have a wonderful museum.”
Phillips’ $4 million gift is going to finance an additional 8,880 square feet to the existing building’s already huge archives and materials, Gandy said.
“Not knocking anything going on in our neighbor Florence,” Gandy said, “but you can tour their exhibit gallery, you can tour the exhibit gallery in Hartsville, you can have your curiosity piqued, but unfortunately, there’s nothing else behind the wall to satisfy that curiosity. You may have to take your phone out and Google for the rest of the narrative. You may have to go home and get on your computer and dig for some more answers.”
But he added: “Here in Darlington, South Carolina, you’ll be able to tour your exhibit gallery, have your curiosity piqued — and just say you’re standing in front of furniture from the first free African-American merchant from Society Hill, and you want to know more … you can go upstairs to the research room, and there we can pull you (his) original poll-tax receipts. An African-American at the conclusion of Reconstruction, he paid poll tax to be able to exercise his right to freedom. … We’ll be able to pull you photographs of his house and documents related to his business.”
“You’ll be able to go deep here,” Gandy said.
“We’re creating a destination,” he said. “A destination where our citizens can gather together and, to … their level of comfort, they can dig as deep as they want in their historical narrative.”
The expanded facility is expected to take about a year to complete. Darlington County Council member Angie Stone Godbold, who represents the Darlington area, said it’s a step ahead as well as a look back. “Even though it’s about history, it’s about moving us forward.”
Darlington Mayor Curtis Boyd said he sees the project as part of the City of Darlington’s development, though it will be under county government.
Next to the museum site, crews are building a new $14 million judicial center for the county, and sometimes the sounds of construction almost drowned out speakers at the museum groundbreaking. “I don’t want to apologize for the dirt,” Boyd told the crowd. “I don’t want to apologize for the banging back there. … Almost $200 million is being spent in our little ‘dead’ town, as somebody said the other day.” (That includes an approximately $140 million expansion at Georgia-Pacific.)
“We’re looking back at history, but we’re also making history,” Boyd said.