Motel / Assisted Living / Center for Change, 1320 Highway 1: December 2009














Years ago, I am sure I remember this place being a nursing home, though I do not recall the name. Depending on one's outlook, the cemetery across the highway made this nursing home either ill-placed or conveniently located. Not being able to find any information on the nursing home, I can't make much of an estimate as to when it closed. I think it was still a nursing home back in 2002 when I left Cheraw.

Sometime later, a domestic abuse intervention program called Center for Change was set up here. As you can see in one of the images, the sign is still laying on the property. It seems these buildings were used as a temporary place to stay for victims of domestic violence. In 2009, the organization ran into some trouble (The Link, pay-walled, front page) based on its association (or lack thereof, depending on whom you ask) with a similar organization called Mercy Ministries, which apparently was involved in some questionable behavior (The Link, pay-walled, front page). Since I can find nothing else about Center for Change after 2009, then that is the year I am using for the closing.

The buildings appear to be in fair condition mostly with some cosmetic issues and cleanup needed on the inside and in the yards. Looking at the GIS data, I see the words "childcare and Christian academy". I can't tell if that was another previous operation or a future one that will be established by the current owners of this property. Other than another nursing home, charitable organization, or some sort of school, it's difficult to see anything else going into these buildings.

UPDATE: This was an assisted living facility until the early 1990s at the latest. My uncle, who used to work for the South Carolina Department of Mental Health and later DHEC, confirmed that fact, for he was involved in inspecting this facility in the early 1980s. Not only was this facility used for senior care but also, at the same time, housed mentally ill and mentally disabled people. This facility barely passed that inspection and was ultimately shut down some years later.

The building up front was the administrative office, while the one standing out front in the back was one large room used for dining and social activities. There apparently used to be a swing out in the yard, but there was nothing else. My uncle left me with the impression that these people mostly had to stay inside. He remembers there being no less than two beds to each room with tiny bathrooms in between (enough room for a toilet and shower stall). Given that knowledge and the number of windows on the living quarters that I can see through the fence, there could have been at least one hundred people living here at one time.

Based on the limited, cached Google search results I could see, there is some consensus that prior to this place being an assisted living facility, it was a motel.


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