Rey McClain

WEST PELZER — In the late summer of 1893, Mr. Walter Leland Welborn finished his dream of building a stately Victorian home on Main Street in Frankville, S.C.

One hundred years later, my wife and I took on the arduous task of restoring “The Big House,” in what is now the beautiful city of West Pelzer. We have been living on Main Street for nearly 15 years — years filled with hard work, frustration and a whole lot of pride and pleasure. In the early years of our adventure, we were introduced to Gene and Lulu Welborn, two of Walter’s many children.

Hungry for history and details of our home, we were delighted when Mr. Welborn gave to us a book he had written, “Welborn’s and Related Families With Roots In North and South Carolina.” This genealogical compilation is filled with rich history and mesmerizing photographs of the Welborn family, and it has become one of our most prized treasures.

When thumbing through the pages of this book, one can see the changes that have taken place over the years in our charming town. Living on Main Street had afforded us the opportunity to see the physical changes of our town, from the catbird’s seat. Small towns either grow or die; they cannot sustain themselves by simply hovering. When we moved in on that blustery Halloween night in 1993, we saw a town that was sitting dormant, hovering on the edge of extinction.

After serving for two years on the City Council, I saw that this town was eager to protect its rich history. I founded Project GROW (Grand Restoration of West Pelzer), which was a short-lived project at best. We wanted to preserve and promote the rich history of our beloved town but were met with much apathy.

The town pulled together and elected Mayor Peggy Paxton, a move that would prove to be instrumental in saving our town. All would not be easy, as our elected council members seemed to never work together for the good of the town and its citizens.

Painting the Town Hall parking lot and “putting stripes” on our police cars was more important than investing in a restoration project for the town. Council members quibbled at every meeting, tabling all projects for “next month.” The hidden agendas and apathy would be enough to make anyone throw in the towel, but Mayor Paxton has stayed the course and has done a commendable job in leading our town back in the right direction.

It is difficult to balance the preservation of history with new growth: a growth that is inevitable in a small town in which Main Street is also a busy highway, S.C. 8. Increased traffic flow and destructive transfer trucks pose a daily challenge, but the mayor and council have found ways to complete work on Main Street, ranging from curbside beautification to completing a long-overdue water project.

Through all of these challenges, our mayor has begun to instill an essential ingredient into the life of our town. That ingredient is pride. From our festive Christmas parade to the Fourth of July celebration at the baseball park, to the maintenance of our Main Street’s weeds and grass, you can see that our citizens are taking notice. They were out working on their yards and putting up more Christmas decorations, taking pride in their homes.

With this pride we hope that our mayor and council will seek out those grants to preserve our beautiful town and continue to make positive changes. Creating a cobblestone center of town like downtown Anderson, uniform awnings and parking for downtown shoppers, beautification projects to attract new home owners, all of this will be necessary for West Pelzer to live and grow and to never hover. Would Mr. Walter Leland Welborn be proud of us? I wonder. ...

Rey McClain is a West Pelzer resident.