HICKORY GROVE - The Tri-Cities Community Club is ready for the 92nd annual Hopewell Day on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

Big Wednesday, Hopewell Day, Hopewell Picnic, Hopewell Singing or whatever name you associate it with has a long history, in not only York County but in the neighboring counties of Cherokee, Chester and Spartanburg.

Hopewell Day began around 1918. The Big Day was originally set aside to celebrate the laying of the crops by the farmers in the community. It was the dog days of summer and the farmers had time to get together and celebrate. The festivities started on a small scale. Joe Humphries of Gaffney started a singing school in the Hopewell Community. At the end of the singing school, all of the participants would get together with the local farmers for a day of singing and a picnic.

The singing school was held in the original wooden schoolhouse that burned in 1923. It was about this time that the cooking of the famous Hopewell Hash began.

Not long after the wooden structure burned, the now present brick building was completed and the Hopewell Singing has been held inside through today. Hopewell Day has been held every year since 1918 with the exception of a couple of years during World War II.

For the past 36 years, the Tri-Cities group and other western York County residents have sponsored the Hopewell Day tradition. People from miles around attend the event and it is said that Hopewell Day may well be the only mid-week, allday gospel singing in existence.

The annual event will beheld at the old Hopewell Schoolhouse outside just off Hwy. 97. The singing starts at 10 a.m. The Riverside Boys from Lockhart will be the featured group and there will be plenty of congregational singing.