Chesterfield, SC 29709
Business District North Side
304 West Main Street

Dr. Robert Lee Gardner House
Ted Caston Melton, Jr. House and Melton's Florist
LaBorde Douglass House and Douglass Floral Shop
  Dr. William Perry: My mother told me this was one of the oldest houses in town. At one time the house stood high off the ground; I played under the house when I was a child. In my time it was known as the Gardner House (Dr. Robert Lee Gardner). He was a contemporary of my father. He had three children the same ages as the children in my family--Robert Allen, Margaret, and the younger son, Leon. Robert finished Chesterfield High School in the same class with me (1929). He went to The Citadel and became an officer and one of the first naval pilots in WWII. He married an admiral’s daughter. The Gardner daughter married and moved away. The younger son, Leon, became a civil engineer, and he worked with Becker County. LaBorde and Dorine Shuler Douglass bought the Gardner house from Ted Melton, and she operated a flower shop at this location for several years.

Katherine Ward Rivers Braswell: Margaret Gardner had a kindergarten here that I attended as a child. Margaret was a good friend of my aunt. She never married, and she and her mother moved to Columbia, SC.

Elizabeth Ann Gaddy Rivers: This was the home of Dr. Robert Lee and Lila Allen Williston Gardner. It was later the home of Ted C., Jr. and Jane Walpole Melton. They lived in one side of the house and operated Melton's Florist, in partnership with his mother, Eugenia Parler Melton, on the other side. Jane taught piano at the school. Later Dorine Douglass bought the flower shop and operated it for several years.

Mary Frances Burch Owen: My parents, J. Preston Burch and Annie Belle Streater Burch, and I moved here from a rental house at 107 Mangum Street when that property was sold. Dr. Gardner had died, and Mrs. Gardner lived in one side of this house and rented the other side to us. We lived here while our house was being built at 1006 West Main Street.
 

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Copyright © James W. Jenkins, 2006