An old carriage house and elevator used by a funeral home were among the surprises Shane Pittman found when he rented a downtown building in Gaffney last fall with his eyes set on opening a new photography studio.

Nine months after opening, it’s difficult for anyone to tell that Pittman’s Photography was once the largest furniture store in Gaffney with its own undertaking department. The front entrance features a red and black business logo with bright digital photos bursting with color in the store display window.

Shane Pittman and his wife, Leslie, have transformed the former Gaffney Furniture Company building into an 8,000-square-foot photography studio.

“I have been into photography ever since I was a little boy. I was doing digital photography on the side for several years until I decided last year I wanted to take pictures full-time,” Shane Pittman said. “I was looking for a place with lots of room when I learned owner Tom Lee had a building available to lease in downtown Gaffney. As soon as I saw the inside, I knew this would be a great place for a photography studio.”

Pittman’s Photography is located on Limestone Street between Stix and Harold’s restaurants. The building dates back to the early 1900s when its first tenant was the Gaffney Drug Company.

The Gaffney Furniture Company moved into the 2-story brick structure in 1913. The company was started by a group of Greer businessmen led by Cherokee County native C.E. Marsh, according to a Cherokee County anniversary industrial edition published by The Gaffney Ledger.

Born in the Gowdeysville section in 1880, Marsh was the grand nephew of Gen. Robert E. Lee. His grandmother was a sister of the famous Confederate leader.

“We went to the Cherokee County history museum to get information about the building,” Leslie Pittman said. “It has been real interesting to learn about the history of the downtown buildings while getting ready to open our own studio here.”

The first floor in the Gaffney Furniture Company was the main sales room stocked with expensive furniture, beds, art squares, rugs, trunks and hammocks, according to The Gaffney Ledger article. The basement held the company’s stock of stoves and kitchen equipment.

The undertaking department occupied most of the second floor. The funeral equipment included two hearses and a casket delivery wagon.

An elevator used for lifting caskets stands near the new doors that the Pittmans installed to comply with the city’s building codes. The elevator is among the historical items the couple left while converting the former furniture store into a photography studio last fall.

Leslie Pittman remembers when downtown Gaffney was a thriving business center.

“When we went shopping as kids, the downtown area is where we came. I remember shopping for clothes at Graham Cash and going to get my hair cut,” she said.

The Pittmans officially opened their studio in downtown Gaffney on Dec. 17, just before the Christmas shopping rush. They have been relying on word of mouth and social networking sites like Facebook to schedule appointments for family, wedding and high school graduation portraits.

When he’s not using the historic studio space for photo backdrops, Shane Pittman is spending some of his spare time taking digital pictures of old downtown buildings. He hopes to eventually compile the downtown photos into one large picture to give future residents a visual image on how the historic downtown Gaffney area once appeared.

“It has been fun to compare my photos of downtown buildings with older photos of how they used to look,” Shane Pittman said. “I would like to eventually put together a panoramic picture showing all the historic buildings in downtown Gaffney.”