DRIVING TOUR OF EDGEFIELD, SC

Adams House, 212 Augusta Road. This house was built sometime around 1890 by W.W. Adams, a prominent merchant and long-time mayor of Edgefield. It is a classic Victorian design of George F. Barber of Knoxville, Tennessee, who published books of Victorian-era house plans in the period 1890-1910. Barber is generally credited with establishing the architectural formula we now call Queen Ann style.  When Mr. Adams died in 1913, he was one of the wealthiest men in the town. His family continued to own the house up until the mid-twentieth century.

Harwood House, 609 Main Street.  This house was built for Captain and Mrs. Nathan George Evans upon the site of the earlier home of B.C.  Bryan (1812-1884) which had been built circ 1850. Bryan was a local merchant and one-time Treasurer of Edgefield County. Construction on the Evans new home began in February, 1903, and was completed by late June of that year.  The Evans' hosted a house-warming evening which was described in the Edgefield Chronicle as "a very large, handsome and hospitable euchre party."  Euchre is a card game which was popular a century ago. Evans, the brother of Governo John Gary Evans, was a lawyer who practiced in town where the History Park is now located. The house was later owned by Miss Charlton Dozier (1865-1954) who named it "Harwood" for her grandfather, Dr. John Harwood Burt (1798-1861), a prominent local physician and one of the founders of Catholicism in Edgefield County.

Kendall Mill, Norris Street. This mill was built in 1896 by the Edgefield Manufacturing Company, a company organized by Edgefield native and New South industrialist D. A. Tompkins (1851-1914). The new company was a sister company to the Edgefield Oil Company which owned the adjacent cotton seed oil mill, ginnery and fertilizer factory. The cotton mill began production in 1898. After a series of changes in ownership and reorganizations, it was purchased in 1918 by the Kendall Company of Boston, Massachusetts, which operated it as a medical gauze mill until 1983. At that time the mill was sold to a predecessor of Delta Woodside Industries, Inc.  and was converted into a yarn mill until 1992. After Delta Woodside constructed a new mill on the south side of town, the old building remained vacant until 1999 when it was completely restored as the Southern Division Headquarters of Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. CTC terminated its operations here in 2002. The mill is currently slated to be restored as apartments.

Halcyon Grove, 406 Buncombe Street. A house was on this site prior to 1824 when Eldred Simkins deeded the property to Daniel Bird, who probably built the grand structure that is there today. Bird owned the property until 1829 when he sold it to Francis Pickens (1805-1969). Francis Pickens must have given or sold the house to his father, former Governor Andrew Pickens who sold it in 1836 to John Lipscomb, stating that the property is “where I now reside.” In 1857 the property was sold to James B. Sullivan who owned it until 1869 when Shemuel Wright Nicholson purchased it for his daughter, Lucy Jane, widow of Capt. John Pearson Bates, CSA. The house continued to be owned by the Bates-Hartley-Feltham family until 2008. This early plantation home has many interesting architectural features, including front windows with panel doors below which can be raised and opened to allow movement from the front rooms to the front porch. Also, the house has beautiful feather-painted wainscoting, an intricately carved archway, a hidden staircase, original Carpenter locks, bushels-of-wheat banisters with lattice columns and a magnificent fanlight over the front door.

Brooks-Tompkins House, 609 Buncombe Street. This house was built circa 1820 by Waddy Thompson (1798-1868), who would later become a Congressman and the United States Minister to Mexico. In 1824 he sold the house to his wife's first cousin, Whitfield Brooks (1790-1851), a prominent lawyer and Commissioner of Equity of the Edgefield District. Brooks' eldest child, Preston S. Brooks, who became Congressman and who attained national fame in 1856 when he caned Sen. Charles Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate, grew up here. After his parents retired to their country plantation in 1849, Preston moved back into the house with his family. The home was later purchased by Rev. Luther Gwaltney, the well-known Baptist minister, who lived there for some years. Around the turn of the 20th century, the house was purchased by Dr. James Glover Tompkins, a prominent local physician, whose family has continued to own it until the present time. In 1924 the house was partially burned but was rebuilt for Dr. Tompkins by W.S.G. Heath (1868-1952), using many of the architectural adornments of the original house, including mantelpieces, wainscotings and fanlights. The elaborate carvings are of an unusual style in Edgefield, found in only one other house, Holmewood.

Adams-Mims House, 610 Buncombe Street. A house site as early as 1843, this became the home of Dr. Benjamin Waldo in 1857. It was purchased by Thomas J. Adams (1846-1902) in 1880. Educated as a lawyer, Adams gave up his law practice in 1874 to spend the rest of his life as the Editor of The Edgefield Advertiser . His only surviving child, a daughter named Florence (1873-1951), was married to Julian Landrum Mims (1872-1937), who succeeded Adams as Editor of The Advertiser . In 1902 the house burned but was rebuilt. Julian and Florence Mims continued to live in the house for the remainder of their lives. One of their sons, Matthew Hansford Mims (1907-1989), inherited the property.

Holmewood, 626 Buncombe Street. Built in 1832 by William Prothro, a wealthy planter, and his wife Sara Ann Lowe, a granddaughter of Edgefield founder Arthur Simkins, Holmewood is one of the largest houses in Edgefield with some of the finest hand-carved woodwork in the region. The house was purchased in 1846 by Francis Hugh Wardlaw (1800-1861), a prominent local lawyer and judge of the Chancellery Court who lived here until his death in 1861. Wardlaw is best remembered as the author of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. Between 1865 and 1875, former Governor Milledge Luke Bonham (1813-1890) lived here with his family. Governor Bonham had been a U.S. Congressman, Confederate General and second war-time Governor of South Carolina during the War Between the states.   In 1903 the property was purchased by Thomas Hobbs Rainsford (1861-1932).

Carroll Hill, 625 Buncombe Street. Built in 1843 by James Parsons Carroll (1809-1883), a prominent lawyer of Edgefield, and his wife, Eliza Anciaux Berrien of Savannah. Carroll Hill has unique architectural features that includes a floor plan with the hallway on the side and a floating staircase, which suggest the Savannah origin of its first mistress. The Carrolls lived here until 1859 when they moved to Columbia so that he could assume a position there as a Chancellor of the Equity Court. At this time, his niece, Ellen Brooks Dunovant, and her husband, R.G.M. Dunovant, moved into the home. Dunovant was a prominent military figure in South Carolina, having served as Colonel of the Palmetto Regiment in the Mexican War and as a Brigadier General in the War Between the States.

The William P. Butler House, 709 Buncombe Street. Built circa 1858, by W.P. Butler, scion of Edgefield County's famous Butler family, on a site which had been owned by Governor Francis Pickens for many decades. This house is principally remembered as the residence of Col. William Hayne Folk (1852-1898) and his wife Elizabeth R. "Lizzie" Hollingsworth Folk (1855-1926). A native of the far eastern side of the Edgefield District, W.H. Folk was an honors graduate of Wofford College and the University of Edinburg law school. He had traveled extensively in Europe. He was widely regarded as one of Edgefield's most brilliant lawyers and remarkably able orator. Mr. Folk died prematurely in 1898 at the age of forty-six, but Mrs. Folk lived here for forty-six years from 1879 until her death in 1926. In 1935, the house was purchased by Sen. & Mrs. William Preston "Bill" Yonce who owned the Ford automobile dealership in Edgefield. They lived here until their deaths in the early 1970s.

Mims-Norris House, 720 Buncombe Street. Built in 1817 by Matthew Mims (1780-1848), a long-time Clerk of Court and a founder of the Village Baptist Church and Furman Academy, this house has been continuously owned by his descendants for nearly two hundred years. Matthew Mims’ son, Robert Hayne Mims (1833-1912), a portrait painter and photographer, lived here his entire life. The house was purchased in 1934 by Robert H. Mims’ grandson, Robert Harold Norris (1898-1983), a Mayor of Edgefield and the long-time banker in Edgefield. This story and a half house were constructed in the forks of the Newberry and Ninety Six Roads just north of Edgefield. It was built with fanlight entrances facing both roads as well as a third entrance facing the Courthouse village. It has beautiful wainscotings and mantles as well as an interesting arch separating the parlor and dining room.

Cedar Grove, U.S. Highway 25 North. This is one of the earliest of the grand plantation houses of Edgefield County. Built by a prosperous planter John Blocker, Jr. (1778-1836) prior to 1825, this house has many remarkable architectural features, including a curved ceiling in the hallway, elaborately carved mantelpieces, and hand-painted French wallpaper. The gardens were reputedly laid out by Andre Michaux, the renowned botanist who had designed the gardens at Middleton Place in Charleston. The house was purchased in 1829 by John Bones, a wealthy Augusta merchant, for his parents who had emigrated from Ireland. It was handed down through the Bones, Hughes and Nicholson families who continued to own it until 1973. The famous boxwoods of Cedar Grove were sold during the Depression to the Rockefeller's Williamsburg, VA restoration project and placed in the gardens of the Governor's Palace.

Blocker House, U.S. Highway 25 North. Built circa 1790 by John Blocker, Sr. (1749-1814), this is the ancestral home of the Blocker family. It was inherited by Blocker’s son Bartley (1790-1849). After the death of Mrs. Blocker in 1871, the house was sold to Samuel B. Hughes of Cedar Grove. His daughter Miss Mary Hughes inherited the house and owned it until 1973. The house was later purchased and restored by Congressman Butler Derrick who sold it in 1991 to Mr. and Mrs. James F. Martin. The original house was only about one-third of the present size. Beautiful Flemish bond chimneys from the 18th century and elaborate mantelpieces make this one of the most architecturally interesting houses of Edgefield. The spacious northwest wing was added by the Martins. Some three hundred yards behind the house is the Blocker Cemetery where many prominent Edgefieldians are buried.

Edgewood, Center Springs Road. Perhaps the grandest and most famous of the Edgefield plantations, Edgewood was the home of Governor Francis W. Pickens (1805-1869), Congressman, United States Ambassador to Russia and first war-time Governor of South Carolina (1860-1862) during the War Between the States. Although the house was moved to Aiken in 1929 and is therefore no longer in the County, the history of this house and the family who lived here is among the most fascinating tales of Edgefield. Our story would not be complete without some description of Edgewood. According to many sources Edgewood was built in 1829, but the original cornerstone, which can be seen in the Discovery Center on Main Street in Edgefield, has the date “1836” along with the initials “FWP.” Built at the crest of a high hill on the Newberry Road (now the “Center Springs Road”) approximately 1.5 miles north of town, the house was not the typical antebellum mansion, but was a story and a half structure to which flanking dependencies had been added on each end. According to tradition, the grounds of Edgewood were designed by a landscape architect from England. Many interesting species of plants were interspersed among statuary which adorned the gardens. The acreage surrounding the house contained one of the few remaining virgin forests in the state. Having acquired considerable wealth over the years, Pickens filled Edgewood with many elegant furnishings. His third wife, the beautiful Lucy Holcombe Pickens (1832-1899), helped him entertain extensively at Edgewood in the period following his term as Governor. After her husband’s death in 1869, Lucy continued to live at Edgewood until her death in 1899.

Macedonia Baptist Church, 315 Macedonia Street. Formed in the years right after the War Between the States when blacks were choosing to create separate churches for themselves, Macedonia was built on four acres purchased from Mrs. Rebecca Bland in 1869. Most of its founding members had been members of the Edgefield Village Baptist Church (now First Baptist) and included Peter Johnson, Paris Simkins, Laurence Cain, George Simkins and Robert A. Green. The present church building was completed in 1901. The cemetery behind the church contains the graves of many remarkable members, including prominent Reconstruction leader Lawrence Cain (1845-1884), Katie Ramey, whose white husband, Judge W.D. Ramey is buried in Willowbrook Cemetery, and Paris Simkins, mulatto Reconstruction leader who was the son of Arthur Simkins, the longtime editor of the Edgefield Advertiser and Paris Simkins' half-brother, Andrew Simkins.

Thurmond Birthplace, 305 Columbia Road. Built before 1897, this house was purchased by J. William Thurmond, a prominent local attorney and later U.S. Attorney, for his family home in 1897. It was in this house that James Strom Thurmond was born on December 5, 1902. The Thurmond family lived here until 1906 when Strom was nearly four years old. At that time Mr. Thurmond moved his family to a house on the corner of Penn and Bauskett Streets in Edgefield so that his children could have enough land to learn the valuable lessons of farm life. That house has since been torn down and the site is now occupied by the Edgefield Presbyterian Church. After being educated in the schools of Edgefield and at Clemson College, Strom Thurmond went on to become a teacher, County Superintendent of Education, State Senator, Circuit Judge, World War II hero, Governor of South Carolina, Presidential Candidate, United States Senator and President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. The house was purchased in 2002 by David and Michelle Satcher.

Carnoosie, 415 Columbia Road. This home, built by M. Lebeschultz in 1860 as a one-story structure, is principally remembered as the home of the Sheppard family. It was purchased in the early 1880s by the Austrian immigrant and builder, M. A. Markert, who sold it in 1884 to John Calhoun Sheppard (1850-1931), a prominent lawyer, politician and businessman. Sheppard became Governor of South Carolina in 1886. The house was first enlarged by the addition of the west wing and later, in 1891, by a second story. It is believed that M. A. Markert was the contractor for these expansions. Sheppard continued to be active in state and local politics and business for more than four decades. His son, James Orlando Sheppard (1890-1973), who followed in his father’s footsteps becoming Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina during the 1920s, also lived here until his death. The name “Carnoosie” is reputed to be a Cherokee word for “cornfield,” but it is unclear why and when the name was first applied to this house. The house was purchased in 1986 by the late Dr. Betty Jean Wood, an Edgefield native who had successfully practiced ophthalmology in New Orleans.

East Hill, 611 Columbia Road. This early Victorian home, completed in 1859 for James Henry Mims, is very unlike other antebellum homes in Edgefield in that it is primarily one-story with five main rooms across the front. It bears unique Victorian architectural features, including gingerbread trim around the front porch and wide openings between the rooms, with multiple hinged doors. The house was purchased by General Matthew Calbraith Butler (1836-1909) in 1870. Butler had been a Major General in the Confederate Army and played a leading role in the 1876 Red Shirt Campaign to restore Democratic government to South Carolina. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1877 and served until 1895. Afterwards he was commissioned as a Major General in the United States Army during the Spanish American War. In 1904 the house was purchased by Senator Benjamin Edwin Nicholson.

Holly Hill, 312 Gray Street. Believed to be the oldest house in Edgefield, the core of Holly Hill may have been built as early as 1768.  It was in that year that a 350-acre tract of land was granted to one James Robeson. Later, in 1778, the property was sold to Jenkin and Sarah Harris, who lived there with their sons until 1795 when they sold the property to Dr. Vincent P. Williamson whose widow continued to live there until her death sometime prior to 1817. During the 19th and early 20th Centuries the property went through a succession of owners, including Major Charles Godwyn, Humphrey Boulware, Peter McHugh, Dr. C. P. Devore, and Mr.  & Mrs. Wallace Sheppard.  In 1919, the property was purchased by Benjamin Tillman Lanham (1890-1954) whose family continued to live here until 1976.  In 2007, the property was sold to a family who did a beautiful job in restoring the house.

Darby, U.S. Highway 25 South. Built by Nathan Lipscomb Griffin in 1842, this home was acquired by his son-in-law, Milledge Luke Bonham, in 1858. Bonham was a Congressman, Governor and Confederate General. He lived here before the War Between the States and then later during Reconstruction. In 1863 Bonham sold Darby to George Trenholm, a blockade runner who was reputedly the inspiration for Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind and who subsequently became the Confederate Treasurer. Trenholm allowed his friend Professor Francis Simons Holmes of the College of Charleston to refugee here during the War. Holmes brought many artifacts from the Charleston Museum and stored them at Darby. The house was purchased in the late 19th century by Walter S. Miller. After his death, his widow left the property to her nephew, Douglas L. Wise who owned the house until his death.

Pine House, U.S. Highway 25 South. This historic landmark dates from 1757 when a tract of 200 acres “known by the name of the Piney Wood House” was surveyed for Richard Pace. It was located at the junction of two important trails: one from Augusta to Saxe Gotha (near Columbia) and the other from Charleston to Ninety Six. Prior to 1786 the property was acquired by Capt. Van Swearingen (1743-1808). President George Washington dined here on May 21, 1791, during his Southern tour. In 1818 the property was sold by Swearingen’s son, and in the ensuing years passed through a succession of owners including John Cloud, B. F. Perry, Henry Lowe, Robert Glover, William Eddins and General John R. Wever (1820-1874). The record is unclear as to when and by whom the original “Piney Wood house” from the colonial era was dismantled and replaced by the substantial Greek Revival mansion which was there by the mid-19th century. General Wever has traditionally been given credit for this, as the house was referred to as “the Wever Mansion,” but these same sources date the structure at 1810, much earlier than Wever’s ownership. The probability is that the “Wever Mansion” was built by Wever after he purchased it in 1847. The property was sold by Wever in 1858 to Benjamin Warren Bettis (1812-1893). The house burned in 1868 and was rebuilt by 1870. Two flanking “garconnieres” or outbuildings of the Wever Mansion were not consumed by the fire and survive today. The Bettis family continued to own the property until Julius M. Vann, Sr. bought it in 1934. It has remained in that family into the 21st century. It is now an event center for weddings and other occasions. Some sources have confused the record by suggesting that the original Pine House was located across Highway 25 where an early tavern apparently stood. This interpretation does not, however, bear up under a scrutiny of the deed and plat records, which make clear that the original Piney Wood house was where the Pine House is situated today.

Mulberry Hill, S.C. Highway 121. This home, located halfway between Johnston and Trenton, was built in the 1870s for Joseph Huiet Bouknight (1841-1911) by Captain Michael Anton Markert, an Austrian immigrant who came to Edgefield in the middle of the 19th century and who built many houses in the area. A number of architectural features, including the octagonal columns, pediments over the windows and braces under the eaves, are the distinctive features of the houses that Markert built. The house was named for the very large Mulberry tree which was located at the corner of the house, which legend says was planted as a switch by a visiting horsewoman. Mr. Bouknight married Miss Emma Bettis of the Pine House in 1889. Their youngest son, William Miller Bouknight (1896-1945) inherited Mulberry Hill and lived here with his family. After his death in 1945, his wife Frances Turner Bouknight (1900-1993) continued to live here until she sold the house in 1776 to Earl Huneycutt, a retired executive most recently from Atlanta. Mrs. Bouknight than went to live at Sherwood Forest, the home of President John Tyler (1790-1862) in Virginia which is owned by President Tyler's grandson, Harrison Tyler, and his wife Paynie, Mrs. Bouknight's daughter. After Earl Honeycutt's death, his widow, Virginia Honeycutt, sold Mulberry Hill in 2007.

Forest Cottage or Scout Gray House, 605 Gray Street. This house is believed to have been built in the 1850s by Charles Martin Gray, Sr. (1800-1870), an Edgefield native who had long service in the United States Army, fighting in the Indian and Mexican Wars, and later in the Confederate Army, from first to second Manassas. His son Scout Gray (1843-1901) also entered the Confederate service, fighting in Longstreet’s Corps. He was widely recognized as a very brave and talented scout who was wounded seven times in battle, including one head wound which necessitated the removal of part of his skull. He returned to Edgefield after the War and lived at Forest Cottage until his death. He always dressed like and resembled “Buffalo Bill.” Early in the 20th century the house was purchased by J.W. Quarles whose family lived there for nearly fifty years. The house was purchased in 2002 by Johanna and Fredricke Starr, who have restored it to its former glory. The style of the house is that of a “raised cottage,” meaning that the second floor is the main floor to which a grand staircase originally ascended, with bedrooms and secondary rooms on the first floor. The architectural details of the molding and trim reflect the early Victorian period of the 1850s.

Reel House, 822 Jeter Street. This house was built circa 1846 by James Terry (1790-1856), a lawyer, Commissioner of Equity, planter and vestryman of Trinity Episcopal Church. The grand style with porticoes on three sides was unusual for the time and is an indication of Terry's social ambitions. After Terry encountered financial difficulties in 1849, the house was sold to another local planter, Diomede F. Hollingsworth, whose widow sold it to Phillip Eichelberger (1833-1873) in 1860. A former officer in the Confederate army, Eichelberger became Edgefield's leading "scalawag" during Reconstruction by joining the Republication Party and becoming a trial justice. In 1873 he was arrested for misappropriation of funds but died before he could be tried. After his death, the house was sold in 1882 to Benjamin W. Bettis, Jr., an able young lawyer and Chairman of the Edgefield Democratic Party, who named it "Heidelberg." After Bettis's premature death in 1885, the house was then sold in 1889 to Dr. J.H. Strom, the grandfather of Strom Thurmond. After several other changes in ownership, in 1903 it was purchased by J.H. "Jack" Reel, whose great-grandson, Ralph Reel, restored it in 2021-2022.

Sweetbriar, 176 Cantelou Road. The original part of the house was built in the late eighteenth century by John Mims who died there in 1804 and is buried behind the barn. His son Talton Mims, who died in 1812, is also buried there. The property was later purchased by Preston S. Brooks (1819-1857) who became Congressman and who gained national notoriety for his caning of Senator Charles Sumner in 1856. The Brooks family moved into the house upon Preston’s marriage in 1845, and his eldest daughter was born here in 1846. When the war with Mexico broke out in 1846 and Preston volunteered for service, he sold the house to James Rainsford (1799-1867), an Englishman who had arrived in 1833 and who was married to his Edgefield cousin, Esther Rainsford (1815-1871). They enlarged the house and made considerable improvements to it, making it the center of their 2,500 acre plantation. Esther Rainsford left the property to her nephew, Rainsford Cantelou (1836-1894), who lived there with his family. After the death of Rainsford Cantelou and his wife, the property descended to their youngest son, Bettis Cantelou, who owned it until 1920. The property went through a succession of owners until 1949 when it was purchased by Edgefield County Sheriff A. J. “Jack” White. The property was inherited by Sheriff White’s widow, Grace Rawls White Mobley (1916-2007).