Looking Ahead

Hi folks,

As you can see, we’ve pretty much wrapped up our redesign here at STSC. That is, the design part of it. The site looks much cleaner and easier-to-read (that is, in my opinion) and I hope it will serve readers well for a long time to come. Our original plan was to move the site to an independent server away from the WordPress.com blog platform but for now, we’re keeping it all on the WordPress.com system. Moving the site would be a fairly large hassle as there’s tons of legacy content to be moved and bandwidth costs for custom themes and so on do add up.

Nonetheless, I think the site looks awesome and once the Maps and Photos sections are live again, we can “shut the lights off” in terms of redesigning the site. There was a good bit of work involved since we basically “gutted” the site (to use renovation terms) and built most of the pages and so on from the ground up. We deleted older content that didn’t add any value in order to make it easier to navigate through older content (which you can easily do from the Archive page, btw) and find what you might be looking for. I also added a page that has some details about joining our team here at STSC. Be sure to check that out as well.

Along with the site redesign, Will and I are also working on ways to integrate social media further into our marketing efforts here at STSC. There are a few ways that we can use social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and so on) to grow our community and further engage the established audience. There’s also a few things to be done in terms of SEO since the site isn’t first on the SERP for “small towns in south carolina” (screen grab). That needs to change, but it’ll require a bit of work (whitehat, of course) since we don’t have the tools and traffic that some of the bigger sites shown in the screen grab above have. But we’ll get there eventually.

So there’s a few things that we still need to take care of. The major points we addressed originally are mostly taken care of, but now there’s a few things that will require a bit more work.

But above all, I think the site is coming together nicely and the redesign should wrap up pretty soon.

More soon and as always, thanks for reading… email us if you see any bugs.

Devin Tonhaeuser

May 30 Update

Post written by Devin Tonhaeuser

Today, I implemented a new theme on the site and decided to revamp the logo a bit. The dimensions are a bit different and the logo looks much cleaner in combination with the new theme. I’ll also be working on a few things on the backend (clean up old content and try to make the site load faster) and try to improve our overall SEO so that the site will rank better in the future.

Next up, we’ll make some more changes to the site and finally get to work on the Photos and Maps sections again.

Should be fun…. check back for updates!

Thanks for reading,

Devin Tonhaeuser

May 29 Update

Post written by Devin Tonhaeuser

Today wasn’t a particularly big day, but I made a few changes to the site in an effort to further simplify the reading experience. I made some final edits on the pages and added a Sponsorships page with details about how you can advertise on the site. More details are coming soon. I’ve also created a new logo (still waiting on approval from Will but it will stay live until further notice or approval) which I think looks minimalistic but great. The Contact page now includes a phone number which you can call or text. This should be useful in the future if we run any contests or you just want to call in because you have some information that’s better told over the phone or just want to say ‘hi’. The Photos and Maps sections are currently being revamped and will be back soon.

All in all, things are coming together nicely and we should be ready to move to the next phase (self-hosted server-side installation of WordPress) soon.

Check back frequently for updates and feel free to get in touch if you see any bugs or have any suggestions.

Thanks for reading,

Devin Tonhaeuser

Just a Note

Yes. It’s a little late, but before I began, I would like to take the time to thank all of those serving our county and I hope you all had a great Memorial Day! As you can see, Devin has began to redesign the site and will continue to work on it for a few weeks.(For more information on that, you can read his posts below). While Devin is working on the site, be sure to check back daily for updates, but also check out our Facebook page for contests and updates. Also, next week, we will have our Second Annual “Pee-Dee, Myrtle Beach” Week! We will visit such places as McLeod Farms, North Myrtle Beach, Peaches Corner, The Tobacco of Mullins, and other places located in the area. This begins this Saturday, June, 2nd.

Be sure to ‘tweet’ Devin with ideas and/or leave a comment on our Facebook page!

Until then,

Will Cobb

 

Current State of Affairs

Post written by Devin Tonhaeuser

After a few hours or re-writing the site’s pages and making sure there are no bugs, broken hyperlinks, or anything of that sort, the site looks much cleaner and is a little easier to read. There were 25 pages (including sub-pages) before but I’ve managed to condense all the content down to 11 pages, with 5 or so currently being worked on in the background. Copywriting and improving the content found on the site continues to be a major part of this redesign and will take up a lot of the time allotted for the redesign. There are a lot of steps left before we can step back, but the completion of the copywriting step in this project is very important.

Furthermore, we have more changes coming soon. Changes will include a mobile theme, so that if you pull up the site on your iPhone or iPad, you’ll get a special mobile theme for a good reading experience. We’ll also be moving the site to a self-hosted installation of WordPress, meaning that rather than being hosted with WordPress.com (a free, third-party service), the site will have its own server and we’ll be able to make more in-depth changes to the site as time goes on.

We’ll (hopefully) be posting more about Will’s book in the coming weeks and revive a few sections of the site which have been live on the web but without any meaningful content.

The site redesign project aims to improve the site’s feel and general aesthetic so that readers can find information more easily and find good information via our site if we don’t have it posted here (links section coming soon).

If you see any bugs or have any ideas as to how we could further improve the site, feel free to email me or Will.

We’ll keep you posted. Until then, stay classy.

Changes, Changes

Post written by Devin Tonhaeuser

Over the next few weeks, Small Towns in South Carolina is going to be rolling out tons of new features and a general redesign. This is long overdue and will be a huge benefit for both readers and the site in general. I’m also very excited to be joining Small Towns in South Carolina again on this journey to further improve the site’s feel and aesthetic which will hopefully make the reading experience much more pleasant.

Some features to be rolled out and changes to be made include:

- A responsive design (meaning that a special theme will be displayed if you are viewing the site on a mobile device)
- New content and further improvement of current information and content
- General maintenance (meaning we’ll clean up some broken links and so on around the site)
- More details about Will Cobb’s book and a revived and improved “Photos” section
- (Even) more links to great content about small communities in the Palmetto State

… and much more!

Again, this process is long overdue, but it will bring tons of benefits and changes to STSC. Watch the site for updates and new features over the next few weeks and make sure to drop me or Will a line if you see any “bugs”.

Thanks for reading,

Devin Tonhaeuser

Rare Pacolet Pictures

Former Pacolet resident Gary Robinette has numerous items from his hometown. He has shared several of them with the site. This evening, we release two of these, which have probably not been seen in decades. We hope these pictures remind you of your hometown.

These pictures were taken by Mr. Robinette’s father,Edward B. Robinette, one snowy morning in the 1940′s. His father was also a photographer in the Army-Air Force in WW II.

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Above is the former Shell Station. According to Mr.Robinette, the station is still standing today.

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Above is the former Esso Station, along with the old general store. The Shell Station is also in the background.

Book Information

Small Towns in the South Carolina Upcountry

Will Cobb

Forward – Sam Harrelson

Join Will as he travels throughout eight counties in the Upcountry of South Carolina. Whether it be ghosts, battles, or just pure history, this book contains it all.

Counties

Abbeville

Greenwood

Cherokee

Laurens

Newberry

Spartanburg

Chester

York

Interviews

Former Gov. Mark Sanford

Pete Godfrey

Luis Shelley

Ken Stribling

Towns

1. Abbeville County – Lowendsville, Abbeville, Donalds, Due West, Calhoun Falls, Honea Path

2. Cherokee County – Blacksburg, Cherokee Falls, Cashion Crossroads, Kings Creek, Gaffney, Gowdeysville

3. Chester County – Lowrys, Chester, Richburg, Great Falls

4. Greenwood County – Hodges, Ninety Six, Cokesbury, Ware Shoals

5. Laurens County – Cross Hill, Gray Court, Waterloo, Joanna, Kinards

6. Newberry County – Little Mountain, Peak, Pomaria, Prosperity, Silverstreet, Whirtmire

7. Spartanburg County – Landrum, Cowpens, Chesnee, Cross Anchor, Drayton

8. York County – Smyrna, Hickory Grove, Sharon, McConnells, Brattonsville, York, Fort Mill

The book also features a special forward written by Sam Harrelson, a former teacher of Will’s. He was born in the small town of Mullins, which is located in the Pee-Dee Region.

The book also features an article of Will’s that was featured in several papers about a gas station that shuttered its doors within the last year in his hometown.

Price: TBA

Release Date: Late March

The End of Godfrey’s

We are sad to announce that Godfrey’s Market in Hodges has come to an end. The market, built by Frank and Pete Godfrey in 1948, has sadly changed its name to a more simpler, “Hodges One Stop.” Many of the locals have frowned upon this change and are still calling it Godfrey’s. It’ll take a long time for anyone to get used to it. To most of the residents, it was like a second home.