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On Saturday I went to a stamp show in Fort Mill SC, just over the state line south of Charlotte NC. It was organized on short notice by the Fort Mill stamp club after the Columbia SC stamp club had to cancel their show, scheduled for the same weekend, because of some problem at their long-time venue.
This was a new venue for me: the Heritage Conference Center, a remnant of the Heritage USA theme park complex which (according to the linked Wikipedia article) was at one time the third most-visited theme park in the US, after Disney World and Disneyland. It went bankrupt and closed in 1989 after its founder ran into personal and legal troubles (described in the Wikipedia article). Another organization now owns the conference center and the former hotel building, which operated unsuccessfully as a Radisson hotel for a while in the 1990s.
The stamp show was in the wing that houses the Grand Ballroom, in a smaller room across the hall from the ballroom. There were about a dozen cars in the huge parking lot.
On the other side of a lake from the conference center is a housing development where a water park used to be. I think all the land once occupied by the theme park is now covered with similar houses.
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Inside the conference center is the "Heritage Main Street", a sort of indoor shopping mall. I noticed a small grocery store and some investment / financial businesses, including a gold-coin dealer. I think the balconies are for former hotel rooms.
Beyond the far end of the "street", the building houses a private school and a church.
On the other side of the building from the lake is a tower which was originally intended for the hotel, but the bankruptcy stopped work on it. It's been sitting there, unfinished, since 1989. The current owners want to finish it, finally, and use it as senior-citizens housing. The county government, on the other hand, claims that it's unfit for that purpose and would rather see it torn down. Legal battles are ongoing.
This was a new venue for me: the Heritage Conference Center, a remnant of the Heritage USA theme park complex which (according to the linked Wikipedia article) was at one time the third most-visited theme park in the US, after Disney World and Disneyland. It went bankrupt and closed in 1989 after its founder ran into personal and legal troubles (described in the Wikipedia article). Another organization now owns the conference center and the former hotel building, which operated unsuccessfully as a Radisson hotel for a while in the 1990s.
The stamp show was in the wing that houses the Grand Ballroom, in a smaller room across the hall from the ballroom. There were about a dozen cars in the huge parking lot.
On the other side of a lake from the conference center is a housing development where a water park used to be. I think all the land once occupied by the theme park is now covered with similar houses.
.
Inside the conference center is the "Heritage Main Street", a sort of indoor shopping mall. I noticed a small grocery store and some investment / financial businesses, including a gold-coin dealer. I think the balconies are for former hotel rooms.
Beyond the far end of the "street", the building houses a private school and a church.
On the other side of the building from the lake is a tower which was originally intended for the hotel, but the bankruptcy stopped work on it. It's been sitting there, unfinished, since 1989. The current owners want to finish it, finally, and use it as senior-citizens housing. The county government, on the other hand, claims that it's unfit for that purpose and would rather see it torn down. Legal battles are ongoing.
