Historical City Timelines

1842 - Aiken elected its first mayor, and four members of town council. (There were thirty-nine registered voters.) William Peronneau Finley was elected intendant and James Black one of the alderman. Original committees included: Streets and Roads, Wells, Accounts, Nuisances, and Patrols.

1856 - Aiken’s first town hall was built in the center of Laurens Street near the present entrance to The Alley.

1859 - Town Council passed a resolution to post a notice forbidding the cutting of trees on city streets. Violators were subject to a minimum five-dollar fine.

1860 - Citizens of Aiken established a Public Safety Committee of “Minute Men” to exercise vigilance and seek out “Abolition Emissaries.”

1873 - The Aiken Hook and Ladder Company, forerunner of the Aiken Fire Department, was formed.

1874 - The first kerosene street lights were installed.

1877 - Dr. B. H. Teague practiced dentistry in Aiken’s second oldest brick building on Richland Avenue. He promoted the beautification and plantings in the city’s parkways. The Town Council authorized the planting of some five hundred hardwood trees along its streets and avenues. It is not clearly established who was responsible for the planting of the live oaks on South Boundary Avenue; however, Henry Dibble is given the credit. Other steadfast supporters of beautification included Herman Warneke, J.B. Salley, Sr., and H.E. Gyles.

1891 - City Council passed an ordinance forbidding the sale of whiskey between midnight Saturday and midnight Sunday.

1892 - Following a favorable referendum, the City Council approved the establishment of a central city waterworks, with the primary source of water being artesian wells, eventually located on Newberry Street. Prior to this Coker Spring was Aiken’s primary source of water. Current excellent city “soft” or mineral-free water is supplied from deep wells, Shiloh Springs and Shaws Creek.

1892 - The Palmetto Golf Course was established by Tommy Hitchcock, William C. Whitney, and others. This is the oldest golf club in the South and was the thirtieth club to join the United States Golf Association. During its centennial celebration in 1992, “The Palmetto Golf Club, The First Hundred Years,” was published.

1919 - Josie Smith-Hazel, graduate of South Carolina State College, began an illustrious career in teaching and civic leadership.

1923 - Strom Thurmond of Aiken began seventy plus years of public service. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1954, the only senator ever elected on a write-in ballot.

1931 - City Council authorized a motorcycle patrolman to police Whiskey Road, Colleton Avenue, and South Boundary Avenue and “all streets on the side of town that horses travel.” The request was made by the Winter Colony.

1935 - The City of Aiken celebrated its centennial.

1938 - With Federal support funds, the current Municipal Building (City Hall) was built. It included fire headquarters and police barracks. The Opera House was replaced with the Municipal Auditorium.

1939 - Thomas Hitchcock established the Hitchcock Foundation by donating almost twelve hundred acres of land to the Foundation to be preserved and maintained for the people of Aiken. The acreage, now known as Hitchcock Woods, now contains some two thousand acres.

1939 - “Minnie Pearl” (Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon) of Nashville, Tennessee’s “Grand Ole Opry,” performed for The Pilots Club at the Highland Park Hotel. She purchased her first “Minnie Pearl” costume from a sidewalk sale in downtown Aiken and here created her “Minnie Pearl” character.

1941 - The City Council approved the removal of trees from Pendleton Street to Newberry Street on Richland Avenue. Protests by the Aiken Civic League against cutting the trees continued. The trees were eventually cut to provide for parking. In that same year the City acquired land for the Aiken Airport located on U.S. Highway No. 1.

1955 - The City of Aiken adopted a Council Manager form of government.

1963 - Roland H. Windham became Aiken’s city manager and served for 28 years.

1975 - The City Municipal Building on Park Avenue was remodeled. A new Public Safety Building (fire and police department) was constructed on the corner of Laurens Street and Edgefield Avenue.

1985 - The Sesquicentennial of the City of Aiken was held. The Calendar of events covered nine days.

1987 - Lessie B. Price was the first woman elected to Aiken City Council.

1991 - H. Odell Weeks retired after serving Aiken as mayor for approximately forty years. To replace him Frederick B. Cavanaugh was elected.

1992 - On December 14, 1992, H. Odell Weeks, beloved former mayor of Aiken, died and was buried at Bethany Cemetery.

1992 - In August the Aiken City Council appointed a steering committee of Aiken citizens to prepare a long-range Strategic Plan for Aiken. Their mission was to develop a vision and goals for the future of Aiken which would meet the challenges and opportunities of the decade of the nineties and the beginning of the twenty-first century.