Members of the
first board were: Jack Ragsdale, Ben Day, Harold Armistead,
Remsen Bauknight, S.M. Cassels, Lawrence Lenhardt, W.A. Robinson, Julien
Wyatt, R.C. McCall, R.P. Jeanes, Ben Hagood and H.E. Russell.
The first Chamber
office occupied the upstairs portion of the Frierson Drug building
on Main Street. It would be the first of a multitude of homes for the
Chamber during the next 50 years.
Vivian Hurt
was the Chamber of Commerce's first secretary. Jack merely gave
Vivian a call one day in 1947 and asked her if she wanted to help get the
Chamber off the ground. The job requirements were simple - sit in the
office, open mail and answer the phone. Soon, the Chamber had its
first full-time Director, C.S. Bryant of Tulsa, Oklahoma, but his
tenure was short lived.
The next Chamber
Director was Polk Carter. Through the hard work of Carter and
several other Chamber members in the early 1950's, an Easley landmark was
constructed. The grain elevators were erected on Folger Avenue,
opposite the Chamber of Commerce's current offices. The granary was owned
by the Dixie Farmers Cooperative Association. The two silos
now serve as the only representatives of the Easley skyline.
Carolyn Hunnicutt would
become the next secretary after John McCravy and others filled in
as volunteers. She is credited with holding the Chamber together for
years. She was a mainstay as Directors came and went and office locations
changed.
One of the more
challenging office locations was the old one-room police station that was
situated on the north side of the train tracks at the intersection of
North 1st and Main Streets. When a train passed, the whole building would
shake. Sometime, while on the phone with a local businessman or
someone seeking information about Easley, Carolyn would have to summarily
hang up. The quick explanation would be "There's a train coming. I'll
have to call you back".
The office did have
the luxury of its own restroom. The problem was you could hardly fit
inside to shut the door. The joke was that you met yourself going in
and out of the door.
After the railroad
"hut", the Chamber moved to offices in the Colony Theater
and then to Pendleton Street near the current location of Lu Bagwell
Interiors.
