Georgetown, South Carolina facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Georgetown, South Carolina
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Georgetown harbor
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Location in Georgetown County and the state of South Carolina.
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| Country | United States | |
| State | South Carolina | |
| County | Georgetown | |
| Incorporated | 1729 | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 7.59 sq mi (19.65 km2) | |
| • Land | 6.99 sq mi (18.11 km2) | |
| • Water | 0.59 sq mi (1.54 km2) | |
| Elevation | 18 ft (5 m) | |
| Population
(2020)
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| • Total | 8,403 | |
| • Density | 1,201.80/sq mi (464.02/km2) | |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) | |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) | |
| ZIP codes |
29440, 29442
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| Area code(s) | 843, 854 | |
| FIPS code | 45-28870 | |
| GNIS feature ID | 1247888 | |
Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, in the Lowcountry. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 9,163. Located on Winyah Bay at the confluence of the Black, Great Pee Dee, Waccamaw, and Sampit rivers, Georgetown is the second largest seaport in South Carolina, handling over 960,000 tons of materials a year, while Charleston is the largest.
Beginning in the colonial era, Georgetown was the commercial center of an indigo- and rice-producing area. Rice replaced indigo as the chief commodity crop in the antebellum area. Later the timber industry became important here.
Contents
Geography
Georgetown is located at 33°22′3″N 79°17′38″W / 33.36750°N 79.29389°W (33.367434, -79.293807).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.5 square miles (19.5 km2), of which 6.9 square miles (17.9 km2) are land and 0.62 square miles (1.6 km2), or 8.06%, is water.
Winyah Bay was formed from a submergent or drowned coastline. The original rivers had a lower baseline, but either the ocean rose or the land sank, flooding the river valleys and making a good location for a harbor. The rising of the ocean may have been due to melting of glacial ice at the end of the ice age.
U.S. Routes 17, 17A, 521, and 701 meet in the center of Georgetown. US 17 leads southwest 60 miles (97 km) to Charleston and northeast 34 miles (55 km) to Myrtle Beach, US 701 leads north 36 miles (58 km) to Conway, US 521 leads northwest 82 miles (132 km) to Sumter, and US 17A leads west 32 miles (51 km) to Jamestown.
Demographics
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1850 | 1,628 | — | |
| 1860 | 1,720 | 5.7% | |
| 1870 | 2,080 | 20.9% | |
| 1880 | 2,557 | 22.9% | |
| 1890 | 2,895 | 13.2% | |
| 1900 | 4,138 | 42.9% | |
| 1910 | 5,530 | 33.6% | |
| 1920 | 4,579 | −17.2% | |
| 1930 | 5,082 | 11.0% | |
| 1940 | 5,559 | 9.4% | |
| 1950 | 6,004 | 8.0% | |
| 1960 | 12,261 | 104.2% | |
| 1970 | 10,449 | −14.8% | |
| 1980 | 10,144 | −2.9% | |
| 1990 | 9,517 | −6.2% | |
| 2000 | 8,950 | −6.0% | |
| 2010 | 9,163 | 2.4% | |
| 2020 | 8,403 | −8.3% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census | |||
2020 census
| Race | Num. | Perc. |
|---|---|---|
| White (non-Hispanic) | 3,387 | 40.31% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 4,342 | 51.67% |
| Native American | 9 | 0.11% |
| Asian | 57 | 0.68% |
| Pacific Islander | 8 | 0.1% |
| Other/Mixed | 191 | 2.27% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 409 | 4.87% |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 8,403 people, 3,649 households, and 2,256 families residing in the city.
2010 and 2000 censuses
As of the census of 2010, there were 9,163 people in Georgetown, an increase of 2.4 percent over the 2000 population of 8,950. In 2000, there were 3,411 households, and 2,305 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,368.1 people per square mile (528.4/km2). There were 3,856 housing units at an average density of 589.4 per square mile (227.6/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 57.03% African American (56.7 percent in 2010), 40.99% White (37.8 percent in 2010), 0.12% Native American, 0.31% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.84% from other races, and 0.66% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.88% of the population.
There were 3,411 households, out of which 32.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.0% were married couples living together, 25.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.4% were non-families. 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.14.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 28.6% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 25.2% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $29,424, and the median income for a family was $34,747. Males had a median income of $27,545 versus $19,000 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,568. About 19.9% of families and 24.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.9% of those under age 18 and 16.9% of those age 65 or over.
History
Pre-Revolution
Georgetown occupies a unique place in American history. Some historians claim that American history began here in 1526 with the earliest settlement in North America by Europeans with African slaves. It is believed that in that year the Spanish, under Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, founded a colony on Waccamaw Neck called San Miguel de Gualdape. The colony failed for multiple reasons, including a fever epidemic and a revolt of the African slaves, who fled to join the Cofitachiqui Indians in the area. Having failed as farmers, the surviving Spanish built a ship from local cypress and oak trees and sailed to the Spice Islands in Maritime Southeast Asia.
After settling Charles Town in 1670, the English established trade with the Indians. Trading posts in the outlying areas quickly became settlements.
By 1721 the colonial government granted the English residents' petition to found a new parish, Prince George, Winyah, on the Black River. In 1734, Prince George, Winyah was divided; and the newly created Prince Frederick Parish congregation occupied the church at Black River. Prince George Parish, Winyah then encompassed the new town of Georgetown on the Sampit River.
In 1729, Elisha Screven laid the plan for Georgetown and developed the city in a four-by-eight block grid. The original grid city is listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. It bears the original street names, lot numbers, and many of the original homes.
The Indian trade declined soon after Georgetown was established; and planters cultivated indigo as the cash commodity crop with rice as a secondary crop, both dependent on slave labor, primarily imported workers from Africa. Agricultural profits were so great between 1735 and 1775 that in 1757 the Winyah Indigo Society, whose members paid dues in indigo, opened and maintained the first public school for white children between Charles Town and Wilmington.
In the American Revolution, the father and son Georgetown planters, Thomas Lynch Sr. and Thomas Lynch Jr., signed the Declaration of Independence. During the final years of the conflict, Georgetown was the important port for supplying General Nathanael Greene's army. Francis Marion (the "Swamp Fox") led many guerrilla actions in the vicinity.
Antebellum period
Following the American Revolution, rice surpassed indigo as the staple crop. It was cultivated in the swampy lowlands along the rivers, where enslaved labor built large earthworks: the dams, gates and canals to irrigate and drain the rice fields during cultivation. Large rice plantations were established around Georgetown on its five rivers.
By 1840, the Georgetown District (later County) produced nearly one-half of the total rice crop of the United States, and became the largest rice-exporting port in the world. Wealth from the rice created an elite European-American planter class; they built stately plantation manor houses, bought elegant furniture, and extended generous hospitality to others of their class. Their relatively leisured lifestyle for a select few, built on the labor of thousands of slaves, lasted until 1860. The profits from Georgetown's rice trade reached nearby Charleston, where a thriving mercantile economy developed. Rice also supported Charleston artisans: fine furniture makers, jewelers and silversmiths, to satisfy the tastes of the planters for refined goods. Joshua John Ward, who owned the most slaves in the US – eventually more than 1,000 slaves on several plantations, lived in Georgetown. Many of the old plantations are still standing today, including Mansfield Plantation on the banks of the Black River. Joshua Ward's main Brookgreen Plantation is now the center and namesake of the Brookgreen Gardens park.
The town's thriving economy long attracted settlers from elsewhere, including numerous planters and shipowners who migrated to Georgetown from Virginia. These included the Shackelford family, whose migrant ancestor John Shackelford moved to Georgetown in the eighteenth century after serving in the Virginia forces of the Continental Army. His descendants became prominent planters, lawyers, judges and Georgetown and Charleston businessmen.
During the Civil War, a Confederate fort and two camps were located near Georgetown, by Murrells Inlet. Fort Ward was in service beginning in 1861 but was abandoned and disarmed in March 1862; its exact location is unknown due to shifting sandbars and erosion. Confederate Camp Lookout and Camp Waccamaw were also located near Georgetown. Camp Waccamaw was in use from 1862 until 1864; Company E, 4th SC Cavalry were located at the camp, and at least one soldier died there, probably from disease, in 1862.
Reconstruction and post-reconstruction period
Georgetown and Georgetown County suffered terribly during the Reconstruction Era, as agriculture was low nationally. In addition, the rice crops of 1866–88 were failures due to lack of capital preventing adequate preparation for new crops, inclement weather, and the planters' struggle to negotiate dealing with free labor and a shortage of labor. Not only were freedmen traveling to reconstitute families, but women and children were no longer field laborers. Many freedmen families wanted to work for themselves as subsistence farmers, rather than labor for major planters. Rice continued to be grown commercially until about 1910, but never on the scale or with the profits attained before 1860.
By the time the Reconstruction period ended, the area's economy was shifting to harvesting and processing wood products; by 1900 there were several lumber mills in operation on the Sampit River. The largest was the Atlantic Coast Lumber Company; its mill in Georgetown was the largest lumber mill on the East Coast at the time.
20th century
In 2012, historian Mac McAlister said that around 1905, "Georgetown reached its peak as a lumber port."
As the twentieth century dawned, Georgetown under the leadership of Mayor William Doyle Morgan began to modernize. The city added electricity, telephone service, sewer facilities, rail connections, some paved streets and sidewalks, new banks, a thriving port, and a new public school. The US government built a handsome combination post office and customs house.
Like most cities, Georgetown suffered economic deprivation during the Great Depression. The Atlantic Coast Lumber Company went bankrupt early in the depression, putting almost everyone out of work. In 1936 help arrived. In that year the Southern Kraft Division of International Paper opened a mill; by 1944 it was the largest in the world.
A major disaster struck the area in September 1989: Hurricane Hugo struck south of Georgetown, but with extremely hard winds and an intense storm surge that damaged Georgetown along with nearby areas. As Georgetown was under Hugo's northern eyewall, it suffered winds more severe and damaging than in Charleston, which was in the hurricane's weak corridor.
Recent years
In recent years, the economy has become more diversified. A steel mill was located here by the Korf company of Germany in 1973. The steel mill was financed in 1993 by Bain Capital and was called Georgetown Steel, which became GST Steel Company with its sister Kansas City Bolt and Nut Company plant in Kansas City, Missouri. The company declared bankruptcy in 2001, closing the Kansas City plant, and then closing the South Carolina plant in 2003. The Georgetown plant has subsequently reopened under ownership of ArcelorMittal. Due to the influx of cheap foreign steel, the plant closed its doors permanently in August 2015.
Heritage tourism has become a booming business. In addition, many retirees have chosen to settle in this area of beaches, plantations redeveloped as residential communities, and pleasant climate.
Registered historic sites
Today, the Georgetown Historic District contains more than fifty homes, public buildings, and sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other sites on the National Register include Annandale Plantation, Arcadia Plantation, Battery White, Belle Isle Rice Mill Chimney, Beneventum Plantation House, Black River Plantation House, Brookgreen Gardens, Chicora Wood Plantation, Fairfield Rice Mill Chimney, Friendfield Plantation, Georgetown Light, Hobcaw Barony, Hopsewee, Keithfield Plantation, Mansfield Plantation, Milldam Rice Mill and Rice Barn, Minim Island Shell Midden (38GE46), Nightingale Hall Rice Mill Chimney, Old Market Building, Pee Dee River Rice Planters Historic District, Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church, Joseph H. Rainey House, Rural Hall Plantation House, Weehaw Rice Mill Chimney, Wicklow Hall Plantation, and Winyah Indigo School.
Education
Georgetown High School is in Georgetown. Georgetown has a public library, a branch of the Georgetown County Library.
Notable people
- Anna Peyre Dinnies (1807–1886), poet, miscellaneous writer
- Joseph Rainey (1832–1887) born in Georgetown; in 1870, he became the first African-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Georgetown Post Office is named in his honor.
- Jumpy Geathers, football player for the Wichita State Shockers, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and Denver Broncos. He was a 2× Super Bowl Champion.
- Ruston Kelly, singer-songwriter
See also
In Spanish: Georgetown (Carolina del Sur) para niños
