Our columnist went to Landrum, in search of a small town on the rise in Upstate South Carolina. What she didn’t know was that she’d find four such towns: a well-promoted, small-town partnership crossing state lines and bringing tourists full-circle in the Carolina Foothills.
It’s late Thursday afternoon in Landrum, South Carolina, population 2,300. Spring hasn’t quite sprung—it’s hardly peak tourist season. But the line outside the 130-seat The Hare and The Hound Restaurant is long, and traffic on East Rutherford Street is steady.
Patty Otto has owned The Hare and The Hound for 17 years; she serves 4,500 customers a week. That’s a lot of people for this very small city on the northern edge of Spartanburg County, known as The Dark Corner for its longstanding reputation as the region’s moonshine hub. (Otto’s restaurant was once home to Landrum’s Mercantile—large-scale sugar distributor for moonshiners in the day.)
Twenty years ago, Landrum’s downtown was dark. “A chain store on the edge of town drove a lot of businesses out—and then the store left. It left us in a pretty bad way,” says Landrum Mayor Robert Briggs.
Today, Landrum’s downtown has blossomed. There’s an Amish furniture store, a new outdoor gear store, clothing and antique shops, restaurants and a quilt shop, a toy store and upscale children’s shop. Southern Living named Landrum one of the South’s best small towns in 2016. With an active Architectural Review Board and new comprehensive plan in place, Landrum is set to build on its small-town virtues.
And, wisely, on its history. Quilts and trains and horses.
One of six quilt trails in Upstate South Carolina, the Foothills Trail brightens Landrum’s downtown with 42 painted quilt blocks.
“All of them have a story,” says Ellen Henderson of the Landrum Quilters. You can follow the quilt blocks systematically (foothillsquilttrail.com), or let them surprise you. Either way, you know you’re in quilt territory. (Famed quilter Georgia Bonesteel lives in nearby Flat Rock, North Carolina, and was part of the first Landrum Quilt Show in 1990.)
Like many small mountain towns, Landrum got its start in the 1880s, when the railroad came through from Spartanburg on its way into North Carolina. Now the restored train depot is an event venue, and the city is underway with an interactive Train Museum housed in the donated Pacolet River rail car.
And horses? They’re everywhere. There is a deep equine legacy in the area. Michigan businessman Carter Brown moved to the Carolina Foothills in the early 20th century and founded the Tryon Riding and Hunt Club in 1925. Brown’s group organized the Block House Steeplechase, which draws thousands each year, as well as the Tryon Horse and Hound Show, forerunner of the renowned Tryon Horse Show held at the 384-acre FENCE (Foothills Equestrian Nature Center).
For those who prefer their horses colorful and still, there is the regional Art of the Horse Trail: 32 fiberglass statues scattered around the Foothills, in Landrum and Spartanburg as well as neighboring Tryon, Saluda, and Columbus in Polk County, NC.
The Art of the Horse is a signature fundraiser for one of the most creative and well-marketed regional projects I’ve encountered traveling our mountains: Our Carolina Foothills.
The organization’s founder and president, Suzanne Strickland, is owner of Stone Soup, a market and café on the outskirts of Landrum.
Why Stone Soup? The flyer she distributes to interested customers brings it all back. “Stone Soup” is the folktale about a hungry old man who comes to town looking for food and rest. The townspeople, hungry themselves, say they can’t help. Then, working together, the old man and the townspeople concoct a delicious soup with a “magic stone” and vegetables and beef that appear as the citizens contribute what they can.
“The story is about community. We can make something wonderful when we work together,” Strickland says.
Each of the three North Carolina counterparts to Landrum offers visitors beautiful scenery, outdoor recreation, great restaurants and shopping, and their own memorable stories:
- Artsy Tryon, a 10-minute drive from Landrum, hometown of Nina Simone and a magnet for artists, writers, architects, naturalists, dramatists. They call it “The Tryon Mystique,” and it seems to be real—the town of just over 1,600 people has a thriving Main Street with dozens of shops, a newly restored theater, and a longstanding Arts and Crafts School.
- Polk County seat Columbus, where the historical museum and walking tour provide a solid sense of place, and where you can find the only flag museum in the United States. It’s the closest of the four towns to the Tryon International Equestrian Center, location of the 2018 World Equestrian Games (known as the Olympics for horses).
- Saluda, where the entire downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places and where you’ll find Thompson’s Store, the oldest family grocery in North Carolina. The Saluda Grade—the steepest main-line standard-gauge grade in America—ends here, and today a new Rail Museum honors Saluda’s rail history. (It’s worth noting that Saluda (population 980) has its own monthly lifestyles magazine, print and online versions!)
Visit a visitor information center in any of the four towns, and you’ll find brochures and regional maps (in addition to the quilt trail and Art of the Horse tour, there’s a five-vineyard/winery trail) branded with the colorful kaleidoscopic Our Carolina Foothills logo: four intersecting circles representing the four towns who have come together for cooperative ventures and economic stability.
“It’s all in knowing how,” says the old man to the townspeople at the end of “Stone Soup.” Landrum, Saluda, Columbus and Tryon have learned how to look beyond town boundaries and state lines to promote one another, bringing thousands of visitors annually to spend several days and a lot of dollars…flourishing proof that there is a great benefit in sharing.
The story above appears in our July/August 2019 issue. For more subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active digital subscription. Thank you for your support!
