Bishopville, South Carolina

The Button Museum

A hobby born from insomnia has turned into a hangar full of objects that have been be-buttoned by the Button King.

Located in a large hangar off the highway in South Carolina, Dalton Stevens’ Button Museum is the product of decades of insomnia that led to an obsession with sewing and gluing buttons to anything he could get his hands on.

Steven’s inability to sleep reached a fever pitch in 1983 and he simply had to find something to do during his ceaseless waking hours. He began sewing buttons to one of his suits and before he knew it, two years had passed and he had covered the garment in over 16,000 colorful buttons. From there he began covering his shoes and guitar in buttons of all shapes and sizes. During this time he garnered some fame from his hobby and began making television appearances which, while doing nothing for his insomnia, emboldened the self-proclaimed “Button King” to move onto larger, more exotic items.

After renting the building near his house that is now the Button Museum, Stevens moved his increasingly large and eccentric craft collection into the hangar and opened it to the public. Visitors can now see such strange sights as the hearse he completely covered, a now colorful outhouse, a few caskets, and a number of other strange items that have been covered in small plastic circles.

The Button King continued to cover things in his sleepless obsession assuring that the Button Museum is constantly evolving. He also recorded music and visitors could purchase his CD’s at the museum, although the subject matter is probably pretty obvious.

Sadly, Stevens passed away November 21, 2016, in Bishopville, South Carolina.