Program

Hometown Heritage®, Pomeroy Education Program

Subject

Building, Industry & Commerce

Location

328 E Liberty St, Sumter, SC 29150, USA

Lat/Long

33.920093, -80.333658

Grant Recipient

USC Educational Foundation

On April 16, 1881, the Brooklyn Cooperage Co. was incorporated in Brooklyn, NY as a subsidiary of the American Sugar Refining Company (later known as Domino Sugar). By the early 1920s the company had cooperage locations in Poplar Bluff, MS, Baltimore, MD, Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, New Orleans, LA, St. Regis Falls, NY, Jersey City, NJ, Georgetown, SC, and Sumter, SC. The cooperage plants used lumber to build barrels and casks for storing and transporting sugar and other goods.

In the early 1920s, the lumber industry was booming in Sumter, South Carolina. The extensive tracts of cypress timber throughout the area attracted milling companies, who cut and processed the hardwood. It also drew in accessory infrastructure, such as major railroad lines to transport timber, lumber, and wood products across America. In 1923, the City of Sumter’s Board of Trade put out a call for more lumber related industry to come to the area and take advantage of the resources and infrastructure being built.

In 1923 the Brooklyn Cooperage Co. was seeking a new location close to the large tract of forest they owned near the Santee River. Their previous location in Georgetown, SC was shutting down, and they needed to select a new location. On April 23, 1924, the Watchman and Southron reported that the Board of Trade in Sumter was meeting with representatives from the cooperage company to make the case for Sumter, SC. The representatives were considering many towns and sites in the area, but in 1927 they announced that they had chosen Sumter, SC. In part, the decision was made due to the proximity to both the timberland and the Atlantic Coast Railroad Line which could provide easy transport (The Sumter Daily Item, July 28, 1927). They broke ground the next day.

The new cooperage plant opened in 1828 and was significant to the local economy. It attracted other lumber businesses, like Chicago-based Galloway-Pease, to the area (The Sumter Daily Item, November 1, 1927). It operated here until 1946.

The student-led application for this grant came from students at the University of South Carolina, led by Dr. Jessica Elfenbein. The students researched Brooklyn Cooperage, then gathered and submitted the required materials for the historical marker as part of our Pomeroy Education Program.

This historic marker is also part of the Wood Basket of the World project at the University of South Carolina. The project has produced exhibits, oral histories, an anthology, and a mapping project, among many other educational efforts related to the history of the lumber industry in South Carolina. To learn more about the history of the lumber industry and its impact on South Carolina, visit the Wood Basket of the World site here: https://digital.library.sc.edu/woodbasket/