On April 18, 2023, the Hartsville American Legion Post 53 presented a historical plaque to Brian Gandy, County Historian, Darlington County Historical Commission and Museum. The following is how that came to be.

The Hartsville American Legion Post 53 is in the process of refreshing its facility at 105 Society Avenue. The Post building is on the north side of Prestwood Lake at the corner of North 5th Street and Society Avenue. Updates are being made both inside and out.

There was a large brass plaque mounted on one of the walls inside the Post building. It was one of those things you see, but don’t see because it has always been there. The plaque, along with everything else on the walls had to come down for the walls to be painted. The plaque, upon closer inspection, was a memorial to the Darlington County citizens killed during World War I. It was erected in 1923 by the Robert Lide Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Hartsville, SC. The consensus of the Post 53 members was that this plaque was for all of Darlington County and should be in the Darlington County Museum rather than hidden away at a local American Legion Post in Hartsville. The Museum staff was contacted and agreed that the museum should have the plaque.

County Historian Brian Gandy attended the monthly Post 53 meeting on April 18, 2023. Brian accepted the plaque on behalf of the museum and explained its significance. The plaque is one of two similar plaques that had been mounted in a Darlington County courthouse that was taken down in 1965 to make way for a modern courthouse. The other plaque, which honored an individual Darlington County resident killed in World War I, had found its way to the Darlington County Museum long ago. The details of how the plaque in the Post 53 building found its way there in 1965 are lost to history, but these two World War I memorial plaques are now reunited in the Darlington County Museum. Pictured here: Brian, on the left, explaining the significan