MYSTERY PHOTO: Did it move?

There’s something a little different about this building.  It used to be in a different place than it is today.  Did it move, or what?  Send your best guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our most recent mystery, “Flags adorn impressive, grand entrance,” shows the historic and sumptuous Willcox Hotel in Aiken, which was named the 10th best resort hotel in the South by Travel + Leisure magazine in 2020. “The Willcox has historic southern charm enough to satisfy Scarlett O’Hara,” the magazine says. “Each of the 22 guest quarters are classic but never fussy, with four-poster beds, stitched floral pillows, and double-height paned windows framed by painted wood plantation shutters.”

Congratulations to eagle-eyed sleuths who identified the hotel: Boykin Beard of Camden; Marnie Huger of Richmond, Va.; Chris Brooks of Mount Pleasant; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Jay Altman of Columbia; and Anne Semmes.

Peel offered this context: “Originally built in 1898 by Frederick Sugden Willcox as the family home, it also served as the location of Frederick’s catering company, which he established after coming to America from Cheshire, England, in 1891 to be a caterer for the Old Highland Park Hotel. When the Highland burned down in 1898, the influential guests of the Highland, being familiar with Frederick’s fine cuisine, convinced him to open a small hotel of his own … shortly after which The Willcox Inn welcomed its first guest in 1900.

“As demand for rooms increased, the small hotel was expanded in 1906 and again in 1928. It had been operated by the Willcox family as an internationally-renowned hotel as late as 1957, and has seen many famous and elite guests enter its lobby, including, amongst many others, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Harold Vanderbilt.  At times, demand for rooms was so high that the hotel had to frequently turn down booking requests from many influential visitors, including one from the Duke of Windsor (former King Edward VIII) during a crowded Masters Week in Aiken. This 22-room, colonial revival style building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on March 12, 1982.”

• Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.