Ninety Six hosts mill reunion to raise awareness for mill site park
NINETY SIX — Right in the middle of Ninety Six’s most prominent residential neighborhood, the town is working to build a park that will honor its heritage.
Three decades after the Ninety Six mill closed its doors, Jo Ann Eichelberger is working to gather former area mill employees and their families for a reunion, to raise awareness about the Ninety Six Mill Park. The proposed park will be at the old mill site, along Duke Street.
“It’s the preservation of history,” said Eichelberger, head of the town’s parks commission. “The mills were the lifeblood of the people, and we just want to keep that alive.”
The reunion will be 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 12 at the plant site. Eichelberger said people from the Ninety Six Plant, Adams Plant and Sloan Plant are invited, along with Ninety Six residents and anyone who worked in textiles.
The 14-acre site will have live music, along with picnic foods and markers around the area to show reunion-goers what the park is planned to look like.
Part of a 2016 National Park Service grant had plans drawn up for the park, and the project is going to get $440,000 from the Greenwood County Capital Project Sales Tax.
Eichelberger said a $5,000 donation from the Self Family Foundation was used for state Department of Health and Environmental Control engineering drawings to fill in a pond on the site. Progress has been slow, she said, as the town has worked to get necessary permits and get the project underway.
“We’ve been trying to get funding,” she said. “We applied for an Eaton grant, but we didn’t get it.”
The proposed park would feature an amphitheater where the pond currently is, along with a gazebo on a raised slab of concrete leftover from the mill. Around the 14-acre site, Eichelberger said a walking path would give everyone a chance to get some exercise, even people with compromised mobility.
“The walking trail is great for exercise, and I mean even people in walkers can use the trail,” she said. “Even people in wheelchairs.”
The reunion, she said, will be a great opportunity to connect with people who were involved with the historic mill. It also lets people see what the park can provide for the area, and raise awareness about the project.
Part of the planned park will incorporate the mill’s original turnstile as a centerpiece. She’s still working to get the turnstile refurbished, but Eichelberger said the town is selling brick pavers that will go around the turnstile and can be engraved with people’s names as memorials.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Mar 8, 2018
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com