Clifton in Spartanburg County, South Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)

Clifton Baptist Church / First Baptist Church

Clifton Baptist Church Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

1. Clifton Baptist Church Marker

Inscription.
Clifton Baptist Church This church, originally called Clifton Baptist Church, was founded in 1881 with ten charter members and Rev. T.J. Taylor as its organizing minister. Rev. W.T. Tate was its first permanent minister. Admitted into the Broad River Association later that year, it was originally a union church, also serving other denominations in the village at Clifton Mill (later Clifton No. 1).

First Baptist Church This church, the mother of new congregations at Converse and Second Baptist, bought its building from the mill company in 1896; it was demolished in 1904-05 and the present church was built in 1905. It became the First Baptist Church of Clifton in 1937. About 1945 the 1905 bell tower was replaced in memory of the seven citizens of the community who died in World War II.

Erected 2005 by The Congregation. (Marker Number 42-27.)

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Churches & Religion. A significant historical year for this entry is 1881.

Location. 34° 59.25′ N, 81° 49.254′ W. Marker is in Clifton, South Carolina, in Spartanburg County. Marker is on Hawk Hill Road, 0.1 miles south of Cowpens-Clifton Road, on the

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right when traveling south. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 551 Hawk Hill Road, Clifton SC 29324, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 10 other markers are within 6 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Clifton World War II Memorial (a few steps from this marker); The Pacolet River Flood of 1903 (approx. 0.8 miles away); Cowpens Depot (approx. 2.1 miles away); Cowpens Veterans Memorial (approx. 2.2 miles away); First Baptist Church, Cowpens (approx. 2.3 miles away); Welcome to Glendale Shoals (approx. 3.3 miles away); Pacolet River Heritage Preserve (approx. 4.6 miles away); Camp Croft (approx. 5 miles away); Marian Anderson (approx. 5.9 miles away); Converse Heights (approx. 5.9 miles away).

Also see . . .
1. 1903 Flood. Site is about the 1903 flood of the Pacolet River that struck the Clifton Mills and community (Submitted on October 26, 2009, by Michael Sean Nix of Spartanburg, South Carolina.)

2. Clifton Cotton Mill #2 (youtube). Clifton Cotton Mill #2, Clifton, Spartanburg County, SC 12/13/2008. (Submitted on November 2, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)

Additional commentary.
1. Plans for Surviving Clifton Mill Worry Some in the Community

First Baptist Church Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

2. First Baptist Church Marker

Spartanburg Herald-Journal
by Jason Spencer
March 10, 2008

The owner of the surviving Clifton mill has big plans — he wants to mine for sand along a small beach area just across the Pacolet River, eventually turning it into a park, and put loft apartments, maybe condos, in the sturdy old building.

Restarting the hydroelectric plant is part of his vision, too.

But David Sawyer’s plans are mired in financial problems, and some people in the community are leery of a mining operation coming into their quiet village.

Still, he remains optimistic about the future of Clifton Mill No. 2, and his role in it.

“When the textile industry went offshore, we lost the means to help these people maintain their lives. We’ve done very little to help little communities like Clifton. Clifton Mill No. 1 should have never been torn down. It’s a sad commentary when we lose gorgeous old buildings,” said Sawyer, who turned 65 Sunday.

“There’s so many neat things you can do with them. All you have to do is open your mind.”

Sawyer bought Clifton Mill No. 2 from Best Machinery Movers & Erectors — a small company headed by Dennis Goode and Ron Davis — on June 15, 2004, for $535,000. Goode and Davis financed the deal. But as of May 2007, Sawyer still owed the entire principal and, along

Photographed By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009

3. Clifton Baptist Church Marker

with interest, taxes and attorney fees, a judge ordered him to pay Best Machinery $684,901.41 in October, according to court documents.

The property was put up for auction on Nov. 5, and Goode and Davis thought they had it back. But Sawyer had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Georgia (where he is from) three days beforehand. The sale was set aside.

Sawyer was then doing business as a limited liability company called Habersham Mill, which is now called Clifton Mill Lofts.

Habersham’s bankruptcy filing was dismissed in February, as the company’s sole asset was the Spartanburg property and there was no record of that company being authorized to do business in Georgia. Foreclosure proceedings on the Clifton mill have resumed, and a hearing will be held Thursday in Spartanburg. The property once again could go up on the auction block.

But at the first of the week, Sawyer plans to file for Chapter 11 protection again, he said — this time in South Carolina.

He said he hopes it will buy him time to come up with a plan that will help out his cash flow and allow him to keep the property. Mining the beach and a sandbar in the Pacolet is a large part of that plan.

“It’s an asset of the property, and sand is a marketable commodity,” Sawyer said. “We do two things by doing this. We improve the river by

Photographed By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009

4. First Baptist Church Marker

deepening it, and second, we’ll increase the amount of water available to us when we restart our hydroelectric plant.”

Sawyer said he has a partner in Atlanta, a veterinarian, but would not name him, and that person’s name hasn’t appeared on any documents obtained by the Herald-Journal. At least one other man has been involved in the project, but he dissolved his relationship with Sawyer — which Sawyer said set things back.

Best for the community?
The land that would be affected by the mining operation is about 8.6 acres, according to the application Sawyer filed with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. He plans to replant vegetation over one acre in increments between 2013 and 2017.

The actual operation would be about 800 feet southeast of the intersection of Clifton-Glendale and Goldmine roads.

The state is accepting comments on the project through 5 p.m. March 18.

People who own property adjacent to the mill, such as Kevin Lee, have already been contacted.

“I’m totally against it — just the mess, and I don’t know if these small roads around here can handle it. The tanker trucks that come through seem to keep the road pretty broken up, anyway,” said Lee, 38.

“I think this guy is trying to come up with any way possible to stay around. His intentions

Clifton First Baptist Church and Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009

5. Clifton First Baptist Church and Marker

are not for the betterment of the community or anything. It’s just to try to stay put where he’s at.”

Goode and Davis are against the plan, too.

“We don’t like the idea whatsoever. It really does not belong to him until he pays us, since he is in default. So, if there’s anything we could do to stop it, we would,” Goode said.

Davis added: “You can’t come in and do it in six months’ time. You’re looking at three to five, maybe even seven years, and you’re going to have those trucks, the mining operation, the danger of children being around it. It’s just not a good place to set up a mining operation.”

‘A great old elephant’
The one thing everyone has in common is they say they want what’s best for Clifton. They just have different ideas as to what that is.

“I think it could turn around down here and be a real nice area,” said Lee, who grew up in Clifton and recently moved back. “It’s a beautiful area. It’s just a matter of somebody spending some money and doing the right things to make it happen. And I don’t think this cat here is the guy to do that.”

Don Bramblett, a community activist, hopes to see the small beach once again become a hot spot for the community to fish, swim or rest in the sun. Crime got out of control a few years ago, and the beach has largely been

Clifton First Baptist Church image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

6. Clifton First Baptist Church

closed off, although it’s still easy enough to get to.

“People out here can’t afford to pay dues at a neighborhood pool or Spartanburg Country Club. They’ve got to have access to a place to recreate. I know Spartanburg County is trying to build more parks, but we have nothing out here. We have nothing. If we could — and this is private property, I know — but there is a lot of interest in people kayaking and canoeing that’s just been generated over the last couple of years. So, I’d like to see that nurtured and grow into something nicer,” Bramblett said.

“Mr. Sawyer … had good intentions originally, but I think they’ve kind of gone sour. And for him to venture out into some long-term project, with a huge investment of money, when on the surface it looks like there’s a lot of other problems, it’s somewhat distressing to me as a resident. I’d hate for him to come in here and start doing things and leave it in a mess.”

Goode said if he and Davis do get the mill property back, “We really don’t know what we’d do with it.”

And so, Sawyer is pressing forward.

He can tell you the history of the mills along the Pacolet back to the disastrous flood of 1903, and then some.

“This is a great old elephant, and we want to keep it alive,” Sawyer said.

“Our dream is to

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

7. Clifton First Baptist Church

make residences there. I want to save the building. It’s a beautiful, historic building. I still think this is the prettiest industrial building in the South. We have had no help from local lenders on this project. The people who we felt would benefit the most from it have all turned us down. You don’t have to have a whole lot of imagination to see that lofts and adaptive re-use of a historic building could work. It’s worked everywhere in the country. But these folks are so near-sighted that they won’t help it come true.”

— Submitted November 2, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

8. Clifton First Baptist Church

Clifton Second Baptist Church image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

9. Clifton Second Baptist Church

Bell at Clifton Second Baptist Church image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

10. Bell at Clifton Second Baptist Church

Ruins of Clifton No. 1 Mill image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

11. Ruins of Clifton No. 1 Mill

Clifton Mill No. 1 Dam image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

12. Clifton Mill No. 1 Dam

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

13. Ruins of Clifton No. 1 Mill

View of the ruins from the bluffs overlooking the section of the Pacolet River known as Hurricane Shoals.

Old photo of Clifton Mill No. 1 image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Clifton and Glendale Community Webpage

14. Old photo of Clifton Mill No. 1

Clifton No. 2 Mill image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Michael Sean Nix, October 26, 2009

15. Clifton No. 2 Mill

Clifton No. 1 After the Flood image. Click for full size.

Photographed By The World's Work, Volume 14, 1903

16. Clifton No. 1 After the Flood

Converse Cotton Mill image. Click for full size.

Spartanburg, South Carolina by Jeffrey Willis

17. Converse Cotton Mill

Built on the location of Clifton No. 3, which had been destroyed in the 1903 flood.

Credits. This page was last revised on November 26, 2020. It was originally submitted on October 26, 2009, by Michael Sean Nix of Spartanburg, South Carolina. This page has been viewed 1,837 times since then and 24 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on October 26, 2009, by Michael Sean Nix of Spartanburg, South Carolina. 3, 4, 5. submitted on November 1, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. submitted on October 26, 2009, by Michael Sean Nix of Spartanburg, South Carolina. 16, 17. submitted on November 2, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina. • Kevin W. was the editor who published this page.