‘Back to life’: Orangeburg kicks off Railroad Corner revitalization

Orangeburg's historic railroad corner has stories to tell. The corner was the site of flourishing black -owned businesses. It nurtured college students and the civil rights movement. The historical significance of this moment, of this place, cannot be overstated, Orangeburg City Administrator Sidney Evering said Wednesday. I think of all the folks that came through South Carolina State and Claflin Universities who used this corner as a gathering space, especially during the civil rights era to strategize, he said. said. As the United States commemorated the ending of slavery on the Juneteenth holiday, Orangeburg officials broke ground on a project designed to revitalize Orangeburg's Railroad Corner. "'We will create a gateway to our city regardless of your race, your color or your creed,' Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler told about 300 people gathered under tents for Wednesday's groundbreaking. "'I hope you will come and appreciate Railroad Corner for what it will do to help for Wednesday’s groundbreaking.4“] hope you will come and ap-preciate Railroad Corner for what it will do to help make Orange Burgan attraction for new business and a destination for visitors,” But-ler continued. “Railroad Corner_ serves as a model for what can be accomplished with vision, com-mitment and determination. The transformation from what you see today will be clear and visible and a venue of which we all canbe proud of ”“Get ready for the construction of a project whose time has come, "Butler said. “Orangeburg deserves it, the residents deserve it "Railroad Corner is located atthe intersection of Russell, Mag-nolia and Boulevard streets. It was once home to The State Theatre and the College Soda Shop, a fa-vorite gathering place for college students in the 1940s and 1950s.The one-acre brownfield site slated for revitalization is cur-rently the home to 12 city-owned parcels. - .The initial phase of the $21 mil-lion project will include housingfor 124 South Carolina State Uni-versity students, office space andcommercial space targeted for lo-cally owned dining venues. Subsequent phases are ex-. pected to include housing forClaflin University students, ad-ditional commercial space andfaculty housing.. The site will also be home tothe Cecil Williams South CarolinaCivil Rights Museum.Evering told the crowd the proj-ect shows what Orangeburg cando when it works together. ©“This day has finally come,’Evering said. “Today we come notjust to break ground, we come terevitalize hallowed ground.” _.Evering said the city has, “fi-nally, finally embraced the factthat we are a college town.”
 

The Rev. Larry McCutcheonoffered a prayer in remembranceof the Blackmen and women. whohad businesses on the corner inthe past.“To a large degree, this wasour Wall Street and our center,’McCutcheon said. He prayed theproject will, “blossom into manythings for this community”Congressman James Clyburn,who attended S.C. State in thelate 1950s, recalled spendingtime at the College Soda Shop onRailroad Corner. He also jokedabout spending time at the barand drinking liquor.“] know this corner,” Clyburnsaid, to laughter. “I spent a lot oftime on this corner. Too muchtime on this corner.” ~“] got a lot of Cs instead ofAs and Bs because of this cor-ner?” Clyburn continued to morelaughter. “This corner has had atremendous impact on me. I wantto see this corner restored to vi-brancy:’Clyburn used the occasion toreflect on Juneteenth and how ittook about 2-1/2 years from theEmancipation Proclamation tothe freeing of slaves in Texas.“Why? Because of a failure tocommunicate” Clyburn said. -“They didn’t know they hadbeen set free.”“We are here today because weare trying to rectify those failuresto communicate;’ Clyburn said.“That is what this is all about.”“When we fail to talk to eachother, when we fail to listen toeach other, when we feel like weare the only one with the answers,we are destined for total failure,”Clyburn said, “This corner stayedin that condition ... for so longbecause people were not com-municating.”Clyburn also thanked CecilWilliams for his vision in devel-| oping his civil rights museum,which will move to the corner.“The students who will spendtime on this corner will do so in.alittle more productive way than Ispent time on this corner,” Cly-bum said. “Today is an exampleof what can happen when peopletake a little time to talk to eachother, a little time to listen toeach other. Let us remember theimportance of Juneteenth. It isimportant to the country.”_ “All of us need to be workingtogether to make sure that wehave no more Juneteenths," Cly-burn said. “I do not believe thiscountry should depart from itstrek toward amore perfect union.”Following the program Wil-liams said, “I am glad this mo-Ment has come”Williams is a photographerand author who helped chroniclethe civil rights movement. He'sready to showcase the historyof Orangeburg, Summerton andthe state of South Carolina in themuseum,Williams said Juneteenthwas an appropriate day for thegroundbreaking.“It is time to get the messageout and to get the word out thatsomething great is going to hap-pen in the state of South Caro-lina,” Williams said. “It looks likeGod wanted to bring up the bestlast because we are one of the fewstates in the 16 Southern statesthat does not have a civil rightsmuseum.”Orangeburg resident ClarenceBonnette came out with his familyfor the groundbreaking.4] grew up in the 60s and thechanges in the educational pro-cess, demonstrations and theboycotts, and the jail time,” Bon-nette said. “It was an uphill bat-tle. [have seen some changes, butwe still have a long way to go interms of race relations.”Bonnette recalled visiting TheState Theater when he was inelementary school. He also re-members dining and getting hishair cut at the corner.“Tt will bring the Railroad Cor-ner back to life, even though thefacilities will be a little different,”Bonnette said, “This will be sortof a gateway. I think it supportsboth Claflin and South CarolinaState very well”South Carolina State UniversityPresident Alexander Conyers re-called Sam Cooke's “A Changeis Gonfia Come” and noted theproject “has been a long timecoming.”“We know the history that hasbeen made here for generations,”Conyers said. “While we cannotrepeat that, what we will do start -ing today is make new history fornew generations of students whowill come here for their educa-tion.“Our students deserve exactlywhat the city and the county areproviding for them here today.”Claflin University PresidentDr. Dwaun Warmack noted S.C.State and Claflin have a combinedeconomic impact of $200 millioneach year in the community.“Housing is a challenge”Warmack said. “When you havea housing challenge, that tellsyou... that you are growing. Thisproject gives them a quality placeto live to work and to play.’Orangeburg County CouncilVice Chairman Johnny Ravenelldescribed the day as “blessed.”“A lot of history has been madeon this corner right here,” Rav-enell said. “Orangeburg Countywill continue to do what we canto help this project to come tofruition”Renaissance Equity PartnersCEO Robert K. Jenkins Jr. saidOrangeburg “is teaching Amer-ica how to revitalize the neigh-borhoods near an HBCU”“The city of Orangeburg is. teaching America how to bringback African American com-| Merce? he said. “You and your. leaders are teaching us how weshould bring these neighbor-» hoods back by us and for us. Youare rebuilding your community.”Jenkins noted three locally: owned Black businesses are in-’ terested in coming to the corner,: including a coffee shop, ice cream parlor and chicken restaurant.Renaissance Equity Partners isa finance advisor to the project.The project is being financedwith a number of economic de-velopment finance products,including’ federal New MarketsTax Credits and South CarolinaAbandoned Property Tax Credits.- Financing partners include Op-tus Bank of Columbia, the South.Carolina Community Loan Fundof Columbia, the National Com-munity Investment Fund of Chi-cago and U.S, Bank of St. Louis,The project is a public-privatepartnership between the City andOrangeburg University DistrictPartners, a real estate develop-ment team headed by Luna De-velopment of Norfolk, Virginia.Design firm Stantec has alsocollaborated with the partnershipas thé planning, environmental,design and engineering lead incollaboration with local archi-tecture firm Studio 2LR.The development of the mu-seum will be a partnership be-tween Orangeburg County andthe City of Orangeburg. Thecounty of Orangeburg earlier thismonth approved spending $4.4million to rehabilitate the OldState Theater for the museum.About $700,000 in federalmoney also will go toward themuseum renovation.The project will also includethe construction of pedestrianbridge connecting Railroad Cor-ner to both South Carolina Stateand Claflin universities.A $22.8 million federal grantwill be used to build the bridge.In addition to the bridge, theproject will inchide a new pub-lic transit stop and charging in-frastructure for electric vehiclesand bicycles, as well as a parkinggarage.Contact the writer: gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533- -5551. Check out Zaleski on Twitterat @ZaleskiTD..
 

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