Orangeburg, SC Summer Camps

About Orangeburg, SC

Orangeburg , also known as "The Garden City," is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County , South Carolina , United States . The city is also the fifth oldest city in the state of South Carolina. The city population was 12,765 at the 2000 census , within a Greater Orangeburg population of 67,326 in 2010. The city is located 37 miles southeast of Columbia , on the north fork of the Edisto River . In May 2000, the city created the Orangeburg County Community of Character initiative, which is a collaborative effort by the Downtown Orangeburg Revitalization Association , The Times and Democrat newspaper, the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce, and the Orangeburg County Development Commission. In 2005, the National Civic League awarded Orangeburg County with the coveted All-America City Award , which recognizes and encourages civic excellence and honors communities in which citizens, government, businesses, and non-profit organizations demonstrate successful resolution of critical community issues. In 2007, Orangeburg hosted the first 2007 Democratic U.S. presidential candidate debate at Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium on the campus of South Carolina State University .

History of Orangeburg, SC

History Orangeburg, named for William IV, Prince of Orange , the son-in-law of King George II, of England , was first settled in 1704 by an Indian trader, George Sterling. To encourage settlement, the General Assembly of the Province of South Carolina in 1730 made the area into a township in the shape of a parallelogram 15 x 5 miles . In 1735, a colony of 200 Swiss, German and Dutch immigrants formed a community near the banks of the North Edisto River. The site was attractive because of the fertile soil and the abundance of wildlife. The river provided an outlet to the port of Charleston for the agriculture and lumber products. The town soon became a well-established and successful colony, composed chiefly of small farmers. The church played an important role in the early life of Orangeburg. The first church was a Lutheran congregation but later became an Anglican Church , as the colonial legislature recognized the Anglican church as the official government-sponsored church, thereby exempting it from taxation. The church building was erected prior to 1763 in the center of the village and was destroyed at the time of the Revolutionary War . A subsequent church building was used as a smallpox hospital by General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War .

Orangeburg, SC City Statistics: