Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

The end By SCOTT DERKS They call her Old Crumbley and they say she is more than just a house. "Old Crumbley," one of the last homes still sharing the block with the nearly completed Business School, is slated to be torn down sometime in September. In the front hall of the airy, two-story structure each resident has offered his own epitaph to the 70-year-old house. "Welcome to Old Crumbley." "The House with a sense of humor." "A great old house to knock around in." "Only Haunted House on Barnwell Street.'' When Mike Grier, University Om budsman. moved into the old home two years ago he knew that Harold Brunton, .f , vice president for business affairs, had his eye on the place. I t has been designated as an entrance for the Business School parking lot. once the bulldozers were through. that is. But Grier and his roommates set to work repairing. rebuilding, remodeling and redesigning t the rustic place. The living room was painted six times I before they got a color they liked, but it I didn't take long to settle on navy blue for the saloon. "Not many folks have their own saloon," o Grier said, "We've got one because we don't cook much." 1 Grier laughed and pushed at his thinning e hair. "This house has had a lot of living. k Before us there was a quiet old couple who v hadn't done much with the place so it was slowly falling in." k The "Barnwell Street Gang" didn't let c that stop them and in one way or another -1 have moved or remodeled the entire s house. The mantels in every room but the L living room were borrowed from p Nursing g~ USC's (College ot Nursing has Ms rt( received a $80.:13 federal contract itat.S.dge i to support a special recruitment nitrsdre and career development program siItepo(c for licensed practical nurses and bscprs no m ilitar-y medics. tatigapiat Undler an agreement with the ~le( tNr D)ivision of Nursing, Department clslwihrt of Hiealth, Education and Welfare, ((.yg(msin UJSC's nursing school will first seek ada( (vsn out licensed practical nurses, stdtash medics andl other veterans with hsdge experience in the health fields to attend the University, andl will follow up by assisting each ''isPriua re'cruited student in achieving a 10 iestyo ot S. degree in nuirsing.fisprgainh Announcement of the contract nre n ~r) was made by D)r. Marjorie San- calne(Xm derson. (lean of the College of 1lcmn et Nursing at Carolina. She said the ((g-e nnri1 program will be directedJ by Nancy 1WofcasiV F. Crte ofthenuringschol.~ Mrs nursing,sahI snear for university-owned homes before they were flattened. "And with permission," Grier said, "It took us a while to convince the cops of that -once." The door to one bedroom came from the house next door, the front railing came from a two-story house up the street, and the beams in the living room were part of Columbia Hall. Adorned with "a hell of a lot of paint", quaint French windows in the living room and red, yellow, blue and white railings, several passers-by have walked by, peered in and asked for a tour. "I knew the people who used to live here," one white-haired lady said. "They wouldn't recognize it." Grier, Danny Gilreath and Ashley Thrift re all sorry to lose their home, but don't auli the University or its rapidly xpanding boarders. According to Grier, the University onsidered turning his home into office pace for the Alumni Association or ioving it, but cost was prohibitive. ''The trouble is the beams under the ouse weren't built to support it for this >ng. There isn't a level floor in the house,'' prier said. ''The only thing is I hate to see the death a neighborhood, but I very much believe al ihis house had already begun to die. he people were old. They couldn't get out id The people had their own private ngdoms. In that sense the neighborhood as already gone. ''But on the other hand, if the school eps on moving thr wlevrb D I nrsin all sor tobys thei atome, b,aut oNur ~ui uneing, 'vers thr its. dreidy nunin oadrsn. n lo atro onsidvetre turing hisreh.melansoareficm toteUCpac e for thcouniAsction or e ouse wrin't builtdoingo i for thinusn mdientsaid. prgrm "The finnlyingalat ose h et he poueo wereold Thy cold'hiptou sdepophdterie plannpie ngomjct athaes the neigy orhbrhoodil b 'asr eana gonte .hl h is he udysi "Bu advncte oh.theran, ifthodisthand rp bco' moviscpathetersi l ervbea anc orn ao nibrhotal brafacom back. shington. a mo facult worsipers and b ud aeited who eold irome to lienex ton etee eserve he home in th17. , eih Old Crumble I heard this voice late at night yelling 'Nellie, Nellie.' This man was right by my bed--it was very distinct as if he were calling out for her borhood could come back. "I don't think that the neighborhood around the University should feel constantly threatened," Grier said. Grier said it appears to him that there should be a way to elp the growth of a neighborhood and still allow USC to row. The "Old Crumbley" dwellers say they do have second houghts about leaving some of their friends like Egor, the fire-breathing furnace, the upstairs bathroom (there are hree in all) which was designed big enough to give a Jinner party for 12 (complete with a nine-foot bath tub), he secret trap door between 'losets, and of course Nellie he ghost. Davion'sis eady..tocatr totheir more frmal. ome into se ouroll Astbu u cnein rei ln lat inteneesitestht id'tma (idta aio' sactaoeten Gilreath seems the most concerned about the old girl, but he was the one who discovered her. "I heard this voice late at night yelling 'Nellie, Nellie.' This man was right by my bed -- it was very distinct as if he were calling out for her," he said. Since then Nellie or her friend has frequently unlocked one of the tall, bedroom windows, allowed the water to run in the bathroom upstairs and oc casionall, moved a chair or two. The interesting part, Gilreath claims, is he leiters recently found in the house. The honorable Judge William Townsend had originally owned the house and had a daughter named Edith who was writing to make plans for the 1907 Clemson-Carolina game. Included in her letter to her father were the words, "Tell Nellie hello." ON'S dividual in you.. .to (dress the Big the latest looks for gals casual or etions of jeans, pantsuits, evening o-wea r fashions. The colors, the sounding out a return to clothing ories...something f or every taste. tailored to your needs, too. For the e your trunk, check us out...you'll di nary.