button museum

Usually when I get in a car to go somewhere I just go go go. But this time decided to find some roadside style attractions to break up our trip down to Myrtle Beach. On the way down we decided to try The Button King museum and didn't regret it. The roads to get there aren't as well marked as they should be, but if you go with your intuition you'll find it. It's an adventure, right?Mr. Dalton came out to visit with us while we were there and sang us a Hank William Sr. song on his button-festooned guitar - we asked if covering the guitar with the buttons made it sound any different and he drawled "Weeelll, it sounded like crap before...and it still sounds like crap"! We thought it sounded great and wish we'd had time to stay for another. He was fun to talk to and the amount of time and work that went into his labor of love is just outstanding. He says he's just got two more instruments to do and then he's hanging up his hat.Highly recommend. There's a little place for donations, and he has brochures and a DVD you can take as souvenirs.

Down the road from Pearl Fryar's Topiary Garden (not to be missed!) is the Quonset hut museum of Mr. Dalton Stevens, the Button King. I love Outsider Art, and Mr. Stevens is a good example. He was an insomniac who got the message to sew on buttons. Thus began his untaught artistic journey. First every square inch of his shirt, then pants, shoes, hat, guitar, car, coffin, etc., got covered with buttons. He has signed photos from every luminary talk show host, has appeared across the world. He came into the building shortly after my sister and I entered, and he played his theme song for us on his button-covered guitar , had us watch the dvd of the clips of his appearances on The Tonight Show with Carson and with Geraldo Rivera. He had Johnny falling over on his desk with this responses. He gave us a free cd of his own songs (he's a great picker and singer, too). It was great fun seeing a genuine article of eccentric, free-spirited creativity.

Took a side trip off I-95 in SC to visit the Button King. If you are a fan of Outsider Art, then this is for you. We did not get the opportunity to meet the "King" himself, but enjoyed the museum none the less.

You drive a long way out of town (and given that 'town' is Bishopville, you were already a long way from a lot), down a dirt driveway, and come to a stop by two Quonset huts, one of them, silent, labeled "Nashville East Daystar Mission" and the other "Button King Museum". The wind is howling with the restlessness of lost spirits. When we arrived the was no one else around and the place had the eerie stillness of something that needed a sound track of badly tuned violins. The museum was open, so we went inside, the wind wrenching the door from my hands and slamming it against the metal wall. It is indeed fascinating. A button-covered hearse, coffin, outhouse, suit, guitar... The list goes on. Maybe if the proprietor had been there, singing his little song, I would have felt a bit less like Tony Perkins was lurking in the back of the Quonset with a button-coved knife and shower curtain. I thought it was just plain weird, and was delighted when my significant other, ever the glutton for the strange and exotic, gave me permission to bolt for the door.

Been there a number of times. It's one of those down home places that visitors find fascinating. A little bit of "SC Country." It's fun.

The Button King Dalton Stevens is charming, gracious, and well, cute. He welcomes all guests with a kitschy song that's performed quite well. And shows off with pride his collection of items covered with buttons: a hearse, a coffin, a piano, light plates. He has insomnia and thought this was a good way to cure what ails him. He keeps a grandfather clock partially complete so that when the media comes he has a project to demonstrate. Insomnia and sense of accomplishment be damned.