Probably the oldest local photo yet above. It depicts a saloon somewhere in the vicinity of Rockingham. The print was in Joe McLaurin's collection, from which this was copied, which was itself copied from an old tintype - which explains why the word "Saloon" is printed in reverse or mirror image on the front of the building.
The Town Square as it appeared sometime between 1908 and 1913. Apparently the photograph was made as members of an automobile club from Columbia SC were driving through the square. The photo has to have been made after 1908 because WE McNair Furniture Co, founded that year, is already in place next to Rockingham Power Co. (in the Watson Building, which was built in 1904). It had to have been made before 1913 because, in that year, McNair Furniture Co moved to its present (1984) location at the intersection of Hancock and Washington Streets. Note, also, that the city water tower, built in 1908 and still standing in 1984 and 2016, is visible in the background. A final point of interest, to those who recall the bitter opposition to the proposal in the 1970s to "re-landscape" the square, with the removal of the two large oak trees.
