The National Association of Soil Conservation Districts Historic Marker is at the corner of West St. John Street and North Church Street in downtown Spartanburg and reads:
“The first office of the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts (NASCD) was located in the Montgomery Building on N. Church St. from 1946 to 1947. Soil conservation, with its focus on reducing erosion and flooding, became a nationwide effort during the Depression and gained additional funding and resources in the years just after World War II. The NASCD, organized in Chicago in 1946, elected E.C. McArthur of Gaffney, S.C., its first president. McArthur was instrumental in creating the NASCD as a national voice for soil conservation districts. T.S. Buie, director of the Southeast Office of the Soil Conservation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provided office space for the NASCD here.”
The NASCD, which morphed into the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), serves approximately 3,000 state and local conservation districts across the nation, aiding in natural resource conservation.
The NASCD was actually formed in the mid 1930’s as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal initiative, with a primary goal of helping farmers and ranchers conserve soil and water resources, and preventing another Dustbowl. Due to the events in Europe leading up to World War II, it’s first national office wasn’t established until 1946.
With the historic Montgomery Building restoration project well under way in downtown Spartanburg (I’m excited!), many of us will be regularly passing by this sign. Now we know a little more about it!