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“Bite-Size Bits of Local, National, and Global History”
Anderson in Anderson County, South Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)
 

The Hole

 
 
The Hole Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Brian Scott, May 26, 2009
1. The Hole Marker
Inscription.
This structure is called a "sweatbox" and was commonly used throughout the United States as a government-recommended method of disciplining prisoners during the mid-1900s. It was very much despised and feared by the prisoners, who referred to it as "the hole." This sweatbox is located on the site of the camp used to house prisoners of African-American descent. The camp for the white prisoners was located across the street where the Civil Center now stands. This sweatbox is the one that was used to discipline black prisoners. It is identical to the one used to punish white prisoners at their camp. That structure, along with most of the rest of the county stockade buildings, was destroyed to make way for the Anderson County Civil Center in 1990.
 
Erected 1999 by Anderson County Council and Anderson County Museum Commission.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African AmericansGovernment & Politics. A significant historical year for this entry is 1990.
 
Location. 34° 32.267′ N, 82° 40.65′ W. Marker is in Anderson, South Carolina, in Anderson County. Marker can be reached from Old County Farm Circle. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Anderson SC 29625, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 10 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Weather Reporting Station (within shouting distance of this
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marker); William Arthur Floyd (approx. 0.2 miles away); First Lady of the Skies (approx. 0.3 miles away); The Anderson Sports and Entertainment Complex (approx. 0.3 miles away); Anderson County Fire Fighters Memorial (approx. 0.4 miles away); Anderson County Veterans Monument (approx. half a mile away); Vietnam Veterans Monument (approx. 1.6 miles away); Temple B'Nai Isreal (approx. 2.1 miles away); Anderson, S.C. (approx. 2.2 miles away); World War I and II Veterans (approx. 2.2 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Anderson.
 
Additional commentary.
1. Close To Home - “The Hole”
By Liz Carey
December 17, 2007

ANDERSON — Hidden in plain site, “The Hole” is almost obscured by the recycling dumpsters.

A low concrete box, no more than 5 feet high, the structure looks benign. One can only imagine what being dumped here was like. Only a historic marker tells the story.

In the 1950s, the small building
The Hole and Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Brian Scott, May 26, 2009
2. The Hole and Marker
served as solitary confinement for black inmates of the Anderson County Prison, according to the sign. A similar structure for whites only was destroyed, it says, along with the prison, when the county built the civic center.

This was were they brought people to correct their behavior, it says.

It sits there still. As one pulls up the road to the Anderson County Recycling Center off Mall Road, bright blue containers and rolling landscapes give one a pleasant pause. The building fades into the background of the bustling of people working to save the environment.

To the left though, it sits on the surrounding hillside like a reminder of things that never change. The concrete taking on the signs age. Fall leaves crackle underfoot. The crisp cool air hits a little too hard.

The questions flood the mind — How cold would it be inside there? How scared would someone be to be there, alone, in the dark, in the cold. Did it change anyone? Did anyone die in there? How could one man do that to another?

Barely 6-feet by 6-feet in dimensions, the squat little house causes one to shiver. It’s cold and isolating. There are no windows, only steel tubes coming into the walls and ceiling of the building for ventilation. A dry-rotting door hangs off its hinges like the shutter of a haunted house. Insects crawl in and out and around the door frame,
The Hole and Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Brian Scott, May 26, 2009
3. The Hole and Marker
the pipes and the corners.

Behind a plate of transparent plastic, acorns, leaves and wasps nests are trapped forever inside the corrections den. Are the spirits of those once held there trapped there too?
    — Submitted June 13, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. It was originally submitted on June 13, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina. This page has been viewed 2,252 times since then and 51 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3. submitted on June 13, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.

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Mar. 18, 2024