Nonprofit seeks to preserve Orangeburg’s civil rights history

The centerpiece of this effort is the restoration of the historic All-Star Triangle Bowl on Russell Street.

“We feel like we are really at the forefront of the redevelopment of Orangeburg and the revitalization here,” Center for Creative Partnerships President Ellen Zisholtz told Orangeburg City Council during its Dec. 17 meeting.

Zisholtz has been focused on the preservation of the All-Star Triangle Bowl for the last few years.

On the night of Feb. 8, 1968, three students were killed and 28 others were injured when S.C. Highway Patrol troopers opened fire on a crowd of protesters following three nights of escalating racial tension over efforts to desegregate the All-Star Triangle Bowl.

South Carolina State College students Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond, along with Wilkinson High School student Delano Middleton, were killed.

The event has come to be known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

The Center for Creative Partnerships has received three grants totaling $2 million from the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund to aid in the restoration of the bowling alley. A fourth grant is being sought.

The grants will pay for a new roof, the removal of asbestos, the hiring of an architect, the installation of new electrical and plumbing systems and the installation of new restrooms, lunch counters, lighting and floors.

Upon opening, the bowling alley will have 16 operating bowling lanes. A lunch counter will be part of the remodel, servicing inside and outside tables. There will also be a community gathering room for film showings, book signings and commemorative exhibits.

Zisholtz expects the bowling alley to be open in two to three years.

In addition to preserving the bowling alley, Zisholtz said the Center for Creative Partnerships owns about two-thirds of the parking lot serving All-Star Triangle Bowl’s shopping center.

She envisions the construction of a commemorative park from Russell Street to the bowling and justice center.

Preserving history

A video project is being developed that will capture the history of the civil rights era as narrated through interviews.

The video will include 30 interviews scheduled to wrap up in January, Zisholtz said.

“We will have some of it running in the museum. We will have some of it you can get from the trail,” she said.

The project has been made possible through three grants –$20,000 from the City of Orangeburg, $25,000 from the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Network and $15,000 from South Carolina Humanities.

Orangeburg Massacre Interpretative Trail

The development of a civil rights trail from S.C. State to the bowling lanes is planned. The eventual hope is to extend the trail to create a larger civil rights trail through the city.

The Center for Creative Partnerships is partnering with Studio/Rotan and Renee Kemp-Rotan, an urban designer and master planner from Birmingham, Alabama.

Kemp-Rotan directed the master plan for the award-winning Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail.

To make the first part of the trail possible, Zisholtz says she received a $25,000 grant from the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Network and the Association of African American Museums.

The trail will include stops at S.C. State buildings and then go down to the bowling alley.

Zisholtz hopes first part of the trail will be completed sometime in 2025. She envisions the trail having four sections.

The cost of the project is unknown.

Artist village

The Center for Creative Partnerships also owns the empty lot next to the bowling alley. Zisholtz hopes to place an artists’ village there.

Zisholtz envisions affordable apartments for artists on the lot.

The Center for Creative Partnerships is working with Washington-D.C.-based Renaissance Equity Partners to make the project a reality.

The project could begin in 2025.

In addition to housing, Zisholtz said there will be a downstairs visual arts studio, rehearsal space for performing arts, theater space and a gallery museum.

She would also like to have a daycare center where professional artists can work with children.

Virtual exhibit

Zisholtz said the Center for Creative Partnerships has engaged Orangeburg native Paul Turner, chief executive officer and founder of Virtual America, for the use of technology to map parts of the city for a virtual historic exhibit.

Virtual America focuses on GIS mapping, 3D modeling and artificial intelligence-augmented reality.

The exhibit will use this technology to help show the historic evolution of east Russell Street from the Railroad Corner to the former Hotel Eutaw.

The exhibit will be unveiled to the public March 30 at 3 p.m. at the Orangeburg County Historical Society on Middleton Street.

The project is being made possible through a six-month, $30,000 American Rescue Plan Act grant received through the city.