Greenwood Co. GenWeb Project

Greenwood County takes its name from its county seat, Greenwood. The town of Greenwood was named around 1824 for the plantation of an early resident, John McGehee. Greenwood County was formed in 1897 from parts of Abbeville and Edgefield counties, which were originally part of the old Ninety Six District. This part of the backcountry was not settled until the mid-eighteenth century

The town of Ninety Six was established as a frontier trading post around 1730, and it was the site in November 1775 of one of the first South Carolina battles of the American Revolution. In May 1781 American forces besieged the British-held Star Fort at Ninety Six for over a month but were forced to withdraw when British reinforcements approached.

The arrival of the railroad in 1852 stimulated cotton growing and textile manufacturing in this area. Local plantation owner Francis Salvador (1747-1776), who was killed fighting Cherokees during the Revolutionary War, was the first Jewish person elected to the state legislature. United States Congressman Preston Smith Brooks (1819-1857) and educator Benjamin Mays (1894-1984) were also residents of Greenwood County.

History courtesy of South Carolina State Library

Barratt House

Barratt House is a historic home located near Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built about 1853-1856, and is a two-story, Gothic Revival style stuccoed brick house with a standing seam metal roof. Wings were constructed in 1957 and 1969. It features elaborate woodcarvings and painted murals, which were executed by Dr. John Perkins Barratt, an amateur sculptor and artist. Also on the property are a hewn log structure believed to have been constructed as a schoolhouse for Barratt's children in 1830, a gear house, corn crib, granary, and smokehouse. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

J. Wesley Brooks House

J. Wesley Brooks House, also known as the Scotch Cross House, is a historic home located near Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built in 1815, and is a two-story, white clapboard house on high brick supports in the Federal style with Palladian features. The house also has a portico in the Greek Revival style. The façade front features a double-tiered portico with pediment surmounting the second level portico. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[1

Greenville Presbyterian Church

Greenville Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located near Donalds, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built in 1852 and is a meeting house form, Greek Revival style brick church. Also on the property are a small brick Session House, a large historic cemetery containing about 1,200 identifiable graves, and a natural spring. The earliest graves in the church cemetery date from 1777 and numerous markers indicate service in the American Revolution and American Civil War. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Kinard House

Kinard House is a historic home located at Ninety Six, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built about 1885, and is a two-story, five bay, gable-front-and-wing Folk Victorian dwelling. It is clad in weatherboard and sits on a stone pier foundation. The house was extensively altered about 1920. It was the home of Henry Jefferson Kinard and his son Drayton Tucker Kinard II, prominent businessmen and public servants who represented Ninety Six and Greenwood County in the South Carolina House of Representatives in the late 19th and early-20th centuries. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

Lander College Old Main Building

Lander College Old Main Building is a historic academic building located on the campus of Lander University at Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It is a large masonry building, composed of three distinct sections with a blending of elements of the Romanesque Revival and Georgian Revival styles. Two of the sections—Greenwood Hall and Laura Lander Hall—were built in 1903-04; Willson Hall was added in 1911. It is the earliest Lander College building. The tower serves as a focal point for the building and defines its character as a school building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Magnolia Cemetery

Magnolia Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was established in 1871, and is laid out in a regular grid plan. It contains approximately 1,600 to 1,800 graves. Grave markers are primarily granite or marble tablets, obelisks, square, or stepped monuments capped with urns. There also are several Confederate grave markers, some of which still feature cast iron Maltese crosses. A Gothic-influenced granite shelter was added in 1922. The cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Moore-Kinard House

Moore-Kinard House, also known as the J.M.C. Kinard House, is a historic home located near Ninety Six, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built about 1835, and is a two-story, frame, antebellum central-hall farmhouse, or I-house. Additions were made to the rear and one side of the house about 1900. Also on the property are the following contributing late-19th or early-20th century outbuildings: a smokehouse, cotton house, tool shed, ironing house, and well. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Mt. Pisgah A.M.E. Church

Mt. Pisgah A. M.E. Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church located at Hackett Avenue and James Street in Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built in 1908, and is a brick Gothic Revival style church. It features a steep, cross gabled roof with stepped end gables, asymmetrical massing, and pointed stained glass windows. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Ninety Six National Historic Site

Ninety Six National Historic Site, also known as Old Ninety Six and Star Fort, is a United States National Historic Site located about 60 miles (96 kilometers) south of Greenville, South Carolina. The historic site was listed on the National Register in 1969,[1] declared to be a National Historic Landmark in 1973,[2] and established as a National Historic Site in 1976 to preserve the original site of Ninety Six, South Carolina, a small town established in the early 18th century. It encompasses 1,022 acres of property.

The Oaks

The Oaks, also known as Downs Calhoun House, Calhoun-Henderson House, and Lumley Farmstead is a historic home and farm complex located near Coronaca, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It consists of a two-story wood-frame I-house, built about 1825, with significant additions and alterations about 1845, 1855, 1880, and 1920. Also on the property are the contributing small storage building (c. 1850), two large cow/livestock barns (c. 1920), a farm workshop (ca. 1920), a dairy barn (c. 1950), an early-20th century livestock watering trough, and an early-to-mid-20th century gasoline pump. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

Old Cokesbury and Masonic Female College and Conference School

The Masonic Female College and Cokesbury Conference School is a historic building in Cokesbury, South Carolina, that was the home of several different educational institutions in the century from 1854 to 1954. Together with the adjacent village of Old Cokesbury, it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district.
When built in 1854, the school building was the home of the Masonic Female College of South Carolina, which was established in 1853 and operated until 1874 under the sponsorship of Bascomb Lodge No. 80 of Freemasons. The school was unusual for its time in providing an education for young women.
From 1876 to 1918, the building was the site of the Cokesbury Conference School, a school for boys from 1876 to 1882, and co-educational thereafter. In 1918, it became a public school, and operated as such until 1954. In 1954 the property reverted to the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The three-story Greek Revival style building has a bell tower and four square columns that extend from the ground level to the pediment. The first floor contained four student recitation rooms and four music rooms, there was a chapel on the second floor, and the third floor housed a Masonic Lodge headquarters.[2] The school building and Old Cokesbury were listed together on the National Register on August 25, 1970.

Old Greenwood Cemetery

Old Greenwood Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. Established around the year 1860, the Old Greenwood Cemetery is a historic burial place in the said city. It is significant because of being the oldest cemetery in the area. This being said, it has also become the resting place for many prominent figures in the locale.
The Old Greenwood Cemetery was built as a graveyard for the old Main Street Methodist Church. It was laid out in the original site of the said church with an acre and a half of land area. It contains about 350 graves of pioneers and locals.
The descendants of the people buried on the Old Greenwood Cemetery mostly take responsibility in caring for the site. They work hard to keep vandals away and maintain the site the best that they can. The cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Old Greenwood High School

Old Greenwood High School is a historic high school building located at Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built in 1925-1926, and is a complex of three brick buildings – the main building, the auditorium, and the gymnasium – each of which is in the Georgian Revival style and form a Palladian configuration. Each of the three buildings features a portico supported by six Tuscan order columns. The complex was completed with construction of the gymnasium building in 1929-1930. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

James C. Self House

James C. Self House is a historic home located at Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built in 1917-1918, and is a two-story, brick veneer Neoclassical style dwelling with a green Spanish tile hipped roof. It sits on a brick foundation faced with rock and an Ionic order portico that projects from the three central bays. Also on the property are a smokehouse/wellhouse and garage. It was built for textile magnate and philanthropist James C. Self. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

Southern Railway Depot

Southern Railway Depot, also known as Ninety Six Depot, is a historic train station located at Ninety Six, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built in 1915 by the Southern Railway, and is a combination passenger and freight depot. It is a one-story, rectangular brick building with a flared hipped roof, bay window, station master's room, and segregated waiting rooms. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Stony Point

Stony Point is a historic home located near Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built between 1818 and 1829, and is a two-story, five bay, brick dwelling. It has a jerkinhead roof and twin exterior end chimneys. It was the home of Joel Smith, who was an influential planter, merchant, banker, and supporter of industries and railroads. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Click here for more information.(OFF SITE)

Sunnyside

Sunnyside is a historic home located at Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built in 1851, and is a 1 1/2-half story house modeled after Sunnyside, the home of Washington Irving. It has flush board siding covering the front façade and weatherboard siding covering the remainder of the house. It is basically Gothic Revival in style, featuring a gabled roof and dormers with scalloped bargeboard. It features a Greek Revival style portico. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Tabernacle Cemetery

Tabernacle Cemetery is a historic cemetery located near Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was established in 1812, and includes the graves of many prominent citizens of Abbeville and Edgefield Districts and later Greenwood County as well, from the early-19th through the 20th centuries. Most graves date from about 1812 to about 1950. The cemetery contains approximately 132 marked graves. The cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.[

Trapp and Chandler Pottery Site

Trapp and Chandler Pottery Site (38GN169) is a historic archaeological site located near Kirksey, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It is the last known intact site of a production center of Edgefield decorated stoneware. The Trapp and Chandler Stoneware pottery was an antebellum pottery factory and began production of Alkaline glazed utilitarian stoneware around 1834. It continued production until the later part of the 19th century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.[

Vance-Maxwell House

Vance-Maxwell House, also known as the Maxwell-Nicholson-Murphy House, is a historic home located at Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built around 1850, and remodeled between 1898 and 1904 in the Second Empire style. During the remodeling, a full second story and a mansard roof were added to the original 1 1/2-story central hall farmhouse. The house is associated with Dr. John C. Maxwell, a locally prominent physician, military surgeon during the American Civil War, politician, and philanthropist. In 1891 Dr. Maxwell and his wife helped establish the Connie Maxwell Orphanage in Greenwood named for the only child of the Maxwell's to survive infancy.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The current residents of the Vance-Maxwell House report ongoing spiritual presences in the house that have a continuing interest in all activities related to restoration.

Ware Shoals Inn

Ware Shoals Inn is a historic hotel located at Ware Shoals, Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was built by the Ware Shoals Manufacturing Company in 1923, and is a three-story brick building with a partial basement. The modified V-shaped building features a raised porch at its truncated vertex. The Inn's design incorporates elements of the Arts and Crafts movement and Colonial Revival style. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.