Step Into the Past At Collins Ole Towne - Knowitall.org

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CENTRAL HERITAGE SOCIETY
Article & Photos
By M. Karen Brewer
Ahidden treasure off the beaten
path recalls a bygone era. In
their hometown of Central,
Pat and Roy Collins have built their
own small town—a recreated village
from the 1930s complete with
schoolhouse, general store, barbershop,
sawmill and hotel—to preserve
local history for the current
generation and to bring back
memories of days gone by.
All of the buildings were constructed
on the Ole Towne site, with
some of the lumber taken from
trees on the property and sawed at
Ole Towne’s saw mill. Construction
will begin next spring on the newest
addition, a chapel.
Carson School was named for
the late Silas Christopher “Christy”
Carson, a former mayor of Central
and a businessman whose family
operated Central Concrete.
“He was a good man,” Roy
Collins remembered of Carson. “He
always wanted one of the rooms in
the old school, by the fire department,
left like it was when they quit
using it.” Collins decided to name
Step Into the Past
At Collins Ole Towne
This nostalgic site features a “little red schoolhouse” and
lets modern students feel the heat from boiling molasses.
his recreated schoolhouse after
Carson.
Stepping inside the Depression-era
little red schoolhouse, one
easily can envision students at their
desks, ready for the day’s lessons.
Some of the desks were used in
Central’s old school; others were
purchased by the Collins family
during travels in Alabama, Louisiana,
Mississippi and Tennessee.
An old mill house that was demolished
in town provided lumber
for the ceiling, windows and floor
of the school building. Schoolbooks,
a United States map, old
lunch pails, slates and Blue Horse
notebooks give an authentic feel to
the school, which even has a bell
tower. With a tug of a rope, the bell
rings, beckoning students to class.
A wood-burning heater warms
visitors on cold days.
Inside the General Store, visitors
can find over-the-counter remedies,
liniment, castor oil, produce
scales and other memorabilia
bought by the Collins family during
Winter 2004-05 57

CENTRAL HERITAGE SOCIETY
their travels. Youngsters may be
surprised to discover an old icebox,
telephone and spinning wheel.
Those who never have seen cotton
growing will delight in seeing a real
cotton plant.
Other items in the General
Store include the Town of Central’s
first stoplight, a coffee grinder, a
Coca-Cola drink machine, old soft
drink bottles, an old cash register,
a cream separator, old newspapers,
Farmer’s Almanacs and old license
plates. Also on display are Ford
tools that once were provided in
new Model T and Model A cars.
The period barbershop includes
a barber’s chair bought by
the Collinses, as well as a motorized
barber pole and coat rack, previously
displayed in the Central History
Museum, from the late W.C.
Dobson’s barbershop, owned and
loaned by Joe Tankersley.
The Collins Hill Inn is the most
recent addition at Ole Towne.
Started in February 2002 and now
completely furnished, the inn has
two upstairs bedrooms, three bathrooms,
a kitchen and a dining room
area that can seat 75. In September,
the Collinses welcomed their
first overnight guests.
The Collins family warmly
welcomes visitors, especially students
from nearby Central Elementary
School, who regularly visit Ole
Towne. A special event each October
is molasses-making time, when
they and a few of their friends continue
the annual tradition. The children
learn the process of making
molasses, from Roy’s planting of the
cane to Pat’s pouring of delicious
molasses on homemade biscuits.
The youngsters watch Bob Shirley,
Pat’s brother, strip the cane stalks
as he places the stalks between
metal rollers turned by a tractor.
As the rollers grind the stalks, a
sweet, pale green liquid is released
and travels through pipes; it is
strained twice and boiled in a fourstep
process, constantly stirred and
Bob Shirley strips cane stalks for molasses making. Below: the Depression-era barbershop
and the country store’s assorted remedies, soft drink bottles and other memorabilia.
skimmed, to become the finished
product: that golden brown treasure
called molasses.
Another annual tradition has
been Christmas Open House at
Collins Ole Towne, the site for an
old-fashioned country Christmas.
The buildings are decorated for the
holidays, and over the years the
Collins grandchildren have performed
in Christmas plays on the
schoolhouse stage for visitors. This
year’s Christmas Open House is
scheduled December 11 from 10
a.m. to 6 p.m. and December 12
from 1 to 6 p.m.
Collins Ole Towne, located at
228 Lawton Road off S.C. 93, is
open year-round by appointment to
individuals or groups. For more information,
contact the Collins family
at (864) 639-2618; e-mail
croypatcollins@aol.com. ❖
M. Karen Brewer is publisher and
editor of The Christian View in Pickens
County. She lives in Liberty.
58 Sandlapper