Tiny Town

      As a child, one of my favorite activities during Christmastime was to see Christmas lights. There was, and still is, something magical about the twinkle of colors against the darkness that is captivating. In Easley, SC Perry and Ollie Jennings captured this awe and created an entire village lit at night that draw both young and old, Tiny Town.

      Perry and Ollie Jennings began the Tiny Town project in the early 1970s when Ollie realized that she would never live in her dream home, a log cabin. As a consolation, she asked her husband to build her a log cabin church they had seen in NC. After the log cabin church, they continued adding buildings. Today, Tiny Town is a diminutive zip code complete with a church, blacksmith, stores and more.

Boy fishing with church log cabin in background (photo by Krista Jones)

Log cabin house (photo by Krista Jones)

      Today, both Perry and Ollie are deceased and the mantle has passed to their daughter, Pat Kelly. When Nathan and I went to visit Tiny Town, it was Pat Kelly who gave us a tour of her parents' creation. In our walk through the streets of Tiny Town, we learned thousands of people come to see Tiny Town each year and enjoy the lights. 

Pat Kelly next to Tiny Town's gazebo (photo by Krista Jones)

       If you come to Tiny Town, you will find an entire yard filled with small log cabin buildings including the church Mr. Jennings built. What you will also find is a second phase of Tiny Town that are not log cabin structures, but miniature display case buildings. These buildings have a plexiglass glass front and house any array of toys. Each of these buildings are individually themed, a few of them being Matchbox cars, McDonalds and Disney. In short, Tiny Town is a youngster's dream. The colorful displays kept reminding me of the opening scene in A Christmas Story with all the children's noses pressed to the toy store's front display window. In addition to the town, there is also a an entire building whose purpose is to host visitors as they sip coffee and hot chocolate cooked over a wood stove.

Log cabin (photo by Krista Jones)

Tiny Town's Disneyland (photo by Krista Jones)

Inside one of the displays (photo by Krista Jones)

      From an artistic perspective, what I also found interesting at Tiny Town was the two distinct phases in the buildings, the log structures and the display structures. To me, the first phase marks the influence of Perry Jennings and the latter the combined efforts of the family to continue Tiny Town. There is beauty in each phase. For me, the first boasts originality and artistic flair while the latter shows past influence with efforts to draw a larger crowd to a Christmas-themed Tiny Town.  Here's a video interviewing Ollie Jennings about Tiny Town.

      If you wish to visit Tiny Town, it is open to the public from Thanksgiving to New Years nightly from 5:30pm to 10:00pm. It's address is:

555 Latham Road

Easley, SC 29640

*Free, donations accepted*
(864) 859-7335 or (864) 905-7798

Signing off,

Krista

Tiny outhouse behind tiny church (photo by Krista Jones)