1975 – 2005

Behind the Fence

The pool drains. The marker is stolen. The property sits in private hands, increasingly overgrown, increasingly forgotten. A generation grows up in Taylors without knowing what Chick Springs was.

Timeline

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1970s–2000s

Loss

Public Access Ends; Community Memory Fades

After the pool closed, the property sat in private hands—increasingly overgrown, increasingly forgotten. The Bull estate sold parcels for 49 years after J.A. Bull’s death. Fifty-nine acres had become sixteen. By the 2000s, only the stone springhouse and a picnic gazebo remained. A generation grew up in Taylors without knowing what Chick Springs had been. The name labeled roads and neighborhoods, but the actual spring had been inaccessible for decades. It would take nearly twenty years of persistence to bring it back.

Flooded interior of the enclosed Chick Springs springhouse, c. 2020 — Inside the springhouse, c. 2020. Years of silting had raised the ground level, and the interior had flooded.

The weathered picnic gazebo in 2007, with rusty metal roof and deteriorating wooden supports — The surviving gazebo in 2007 — seventeen years before Hurricane Helene — CSHS

The springhouse in 2007, an octagonal white-walled building with dark green conical roof surrounded by fallen leaves — The springhouse exterior in 2007 — still standing but showing years of neglect — CSHS

Plat of J.A. Bull property in the Chick Springs area showing remaining family holdings, 1981 — Bull family holdings plat, 1981. What remained of the once-vast Chick Springs property after decades of piecemeal sales. — Greenville County Register of Deeds, Plat Book I p73

Plat of the Estate of J.A. Bull Jr. showing the subdivision of remaining Chick Springs parcels, 1983 — Bull estate subdivision plat, 1983. The final fragmentation of the family’s Chick Springs holdings. — Greenville County Register of Deeds, Plat Book 9-J p31

Aerial photograph of the Chick Springs property, c. 1978–1988 — Aerial view of the property, c. 1978–1988. Modern color photograph showing the remnant swimming lake. — CSHS

Color photograph of the Chick Springs springhouse and gazebo, c. 1975–1985 — The springhouse and gazebo, c. 1975–1985. Color photograph showing both structures still standing. — CSHS

Sources

Bull Estate Executors to Messer Products Inc.(1974)

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1989–91

Community

Chick Springs Gem Mine—the Last Public Use

Letch Sturgill built sluice boxes in the former pool bed and opened a gem mine. He repaired three bridges and picnic shelters; the park looked “much as it did in the 1920s.” Three successful seasons drew prospectors ages 3 to 83. A girl uncovered an emerald worth $750 uncut. It was the last time the public used the site recreationally before full privatization.

Newspaper article about the Chick Springs gem mine, Greenville News, October 1988 — The gem mine at Chick Springs — the last public use of the property before it disappeared behind the fence.

Jean Martin Flynn

Born July 11, 1917, in Easley. She joined Taylors First Baptist Church in 1928 at age eleven and was named church historian in 1958. A Winthrop College graduate with a master’s from the University of South Carolina (Phi Beta Kappa), she taught at North Greenville Junior College for fifteen years and at Greenville Technical College. She wrote the three-volume history of Taylors First Baptist, “An Account of Taylors, South Carolina, 1817–1994,” and at least six other books. Nearly everything known about the resort era, Alfred Taylor, and the founding families comes from her research. “I believe all this history would have been lost if she hadn’t been writing,” said church member Francis Alewine. Flynn died October 18, 2006, at 89, and is buried in the Taylors First Baptist Church cemetery.

Behind the Fence

Public Access Ends; Community Memory Fades

YMCA Leases the Site for Summer Day Camp

The Marker Is Stolen—and Mysteriously Returns

Chick Springs Gem Mine—the Last Public Use

“Old Age Killing Fountain of Youth”

Bainbridge’s Heritage Column Surveys the Ruins