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2279 Harris Short Cut Rd, Conway, SC 29526

The L.W. Paul Living History Farm

Experience what life was like on the “One Horse Family Farm” in Horry County from 1900-1955

Farm Information

Guided Farm tours available every Saturday at 10:00 AM, excluding Farm Events, County holidays and depending on staff availability. Tours are free and will last approximately one hour.

Larry Paul, a local businessman with a rich farming heritage in Horry County, offered to fund the construction of a family farm to depict farm and domestic life in Horry County from 1900-1955. Mr. Paul’s vision was to provide Horry County and the museum with a facility to educate future generations about life in Horry County during the first half of the twentieth century. In 2006, Horry County Council designated 17 acres of land for use by the Horry County Museum as the L. W. Paul Living History Farm.

Visitors to the Farm will have the opportunity to sample the everyday life of an Horry County farm family living during this era. Guests on this working farm will be able to observe activities that would have been commonplace on traditional family farms.

Events at the Farm change with the seasons so check in on us throughout the year to see what’s happening here. As the farm year progresses events and demonstrations change to interpret the activities that take place on the Farm annually.

Mission

The L.W. Paul Living History Farm was established with the mission to preserve and protect the materials and objects relating to the history and culture of the Horry County farm family in the period of 1900-1955 and to teach the history of the Horry County farm family through interpretative displays in a working traditional farm setting.

Get Involved

The Museum encourages everyone to get involved. Volunteers are needed to cultivate the farm garden, assist with children’s programs, maintain the site, and even document oral histories about farm life in Horry County. Those interested in volunteering can stop by the Horry County Museum at 805 Main St. in Conway, SC to fill out an application or call the Museum at: (843) 915-5320.

Pets

Pets are not permitted at the farm.

Farm Information

Address
2279 Harris Short Cut Rd
Conway, SC 29526
Phone
(843) 915-5321
Hours
Tuesday – Saturday, 9am – 4pm

Interpretive Panels

Illustrated interpretive panel, Raising Cane, showing seven numbered stages of growing sugar cane, a mule-driven cane press worked by two men, a syrup kettle simmering over a furnace, and a cut-away of the furnace beneath it.

Raising Cane

South Carolina is the northernmost zone where sugar cane can be grown in the south. Cane syrup was a non-essential, but coveted crop that provided home grown syrup.

Illustrated interpretive panel, Working Iron, showing a coal forge in full flame, a blacksmith in overalls hammering at an anvil, tongs and hardie tools, and the stages of fitting a flat steel tire onto a wooden wagon wheel.

BlackSmith

“Working Iron”

Shows the process of working iron. Starting with shaping all the way to grinding the edges, and everything in between.

Illustrated interpretive panel, Gristmill, showing an ear of dent corn, a man feeding corn into a yellow mill hopper, a red Farmall tractor driving the mill by belt, a diagram of the grinding stone pattern, and samples of coarse and fine cornmeal.

Gristmill

Traditionally farmers used stone wheels turned by water, wind, animal or man power to mill “grist” (dry, cleaned grain) into flour. In the South, corn was the basic source of daily bread, grits and animal feed. Here, the milling machine is powered by a belt drive from the tractor.

Illustrated interpretive panel, The Legacy of Farm to Table, showing a woman standing at a laden kitchen table, a cast-iron woodstove, a hand pump, garden vegetables, a butter churn and shelves of canned goods.

The Legacy of Farm to Table

With the exception of staples like salt and coffee, the farm kitchen was almost completely self sufficient. Farm-raised herbs and vegetables, fresh eggs, milk, pork, poultry, beef and grains made for truly “home” cooking.

Illustrated interpretive panel, Taking Stock of Animals on the Farm, with drawings of a Yorkshire pig, a Dark Cornish rooster, a young mule, a Jersey milk cow and a guinea fowl, alongside cured pork, butter, cheese and a milk can.

Farm Animals

“Taking Stock of Animals on the Farm”

Farm animals provide countless by-products, and are a very important part of every day life as a farmer.

Illustrated interpretive panel, Raising Tobacco, showing eight numbered stages from tiny seeds and seed beds through setting plants behind a mule-drawn plow, topping the flower, harvesting and stringing leaves, to curing them in a barn.

Raising Tobacco

Sometimes call Brightleaf, tobacco was an important cash crop to 19th and 20th century farmers. It took many field hands, a well-trained mule and 7-8 months of work from seed to market.

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