Pictorial Tour of antebellum Greenville Area Sites
This tour was produced by undergraduate researcher Drew Feight with funding from the Furman Advantage peer research program.
Overview
The purpose of this tour is to give
students and internet surfers a chance to look at
representative buildings and sites in Greenville, South
Carolina from the period before 1861. The buildings date
from as early as the 1790s and as late as 1860. When
looking at these buildings and sites, students are asked to
pay special attention to location, to materials,
craftsmanship, and sophistication, to the balance between
form and function, and to the social image the nineteenth
century owners and occupants were trying to project.
Viewers of the tour
should reflect on the effects of subsequent
construction. Most buildings from the era have long since
been replaced or demolished; consider why these particular
ones survived.
1. 1790s Cabin
(location: on the Greenville to Asheville Highway, six miles
from downtown Greenville)
This log cabin from the 1790s continues to be occupied
today. It is a typical habitation for the early antebellum
period, particularly for recently settled areas. Although
the cabin appears to be a purely functional dwelling, think
about the variety of other shelters that could accomplish
the same purposes, such as the houses built by the Cherokee
predecessors of this settlement. Why this particular form? Also consider
the cabin's political implications in the age of the "Log
Cabin and Hard Cider campaign."
(no picture available)
2. Hawkins Homestead
(Location: a half-mile north of the 1790s cabin)
The Hawkins homestead has evolved considerably over time.
The right half of the house is a log cabin that the owners
upgraded with clapboards. The two-story left half of the
house was added sometime during the mid-nineteenth century.
In the rear is a recent brick addition. The Hawkins
homestead is more typical of southern planter's residences
than white-columned mansions such as Cherrydale, seen in stop number
three.
3. James Clement Furman House
(Location: three miles northwest of downtown Greenville)
This house was built by George Washington Green and bought
by James C. Furman in 1857. Furman, a Baptist clergyman and
pro-slavery advocate, was the first President of Furman University.
The house, known as Cherrydale, is now owned by the Stone
family, who are important in local manufacturing. The
Stone/Umbro plant located in front of this Greek Revival
structure is also owned by the family, and the property is
sometimes cited as a classic example of the Old South's
relationship to the New South.
5. Christ Episcopal Church
(Location: downtown Greenville)
This congregation was founded in 1821 by seasonal residents
from the South Carolina low-country. Locals called this the
"snap-bean" church, since most of its members attended only
when snap-beans were in season. The church itself dates
from 1852. Town father Vardry McBee and South Carolinas
reconstruction Governor Benjamin F. Perry are buried in the
graveyard. The church is on the National Register of
Historic Places. Note that the northern and southern
transoms were added after 1880.
(no picture available)
6. Kilgore-Lewis House
(Location: downtown Greenville)
This home was built in the 1830s for South Carolina State
Representative Josiah Kilgore. Kilgore was also a planter,
mill-owner, and railroad promoter. The house was originally
located on Buncombe Street. The building, constructed with
slave labor, was an exact duplicate of Kilgore's plantation
house in the southern part of the county, copied so the
inhabitants would feel at home wherever they might be. The
house is on the National Register of Historic Places.
7. Beattie House
(Location: downtown Greenville)
This house was constructed in 1834 at the direction of
Fountain Fox Beattie as wedding present for his bride. The
home was originally located downtown near the courthouse
square. The gingerbread ornamentation found on its exterior
was probably added in the late 1870s. The Beatties received
their income as merchants in the textile business, and later
in banking. Their home is also on the National Register of
Historic Places.
8. Gilreath's Mill
(Location: ten miles north of downtown Greenville)
This grist mill was constructed before 1841 for Joel Bruce by a
local carpenter. Some of the mill's original machinery
is still housed inside. Water for the mill wheel
would have come from a small dam and penstock located
upstream. The iron water wheel would have been originally
constructed of wood. P.D. Gilreath purchased the mill in
1890. Reflect on the expenses of constructing such a mill,
relative to the large textile plants constructed in the
1890s and 1900s.
9. Reid House, Reidville, South Carolina
(Location: about 15 miles northeast of Greenville)
This house was built for Rev. Robert Harden Reid in 1857.
Reid founded the Reidville Academy in 1857. In its heyday
during the 1870s the academy attracted students from seven
states in the southeast. There is a kitchen addition
attached to the rear of the house and also a separate building
that served as Rev. Reid's office.
(no photo available)
10. Female Dormitory
(Location: adjacent to Dr. Reid's house)
This building, built in 1858, was the female dormitory for
the Female Academy and later the Reidville Female College.
Teachers at the academy boarded with local families in the
town.
(no photo available)
11. Male Dormitory
(Location: a half mile north of the female academy)
This building was constructed for the boys attending
the Male Academy, and is quite plain in style.
12. Wilson's Store
(Location: halfway between the two dormitories)
The two story brick store on the left was built around 1860 for L.
Wilson, who lived in the white-columned house on the right.
The stucco facade of this building hides the brickwork
beneath.
13. Leonard's Store
(Location: on the crossroads, to the right of Wilson's store)
Built in about 1860, this small rectangular brick store
across from Wilson's was owned and run by a Mr. Leonard.
Both of these stores sold dry goods and supplies to the
Academy students and professors, townspeople, and nearby
farmers.
14. Wilson House
(Location: across the street and two houses south from
the two stores)
This home was constructed around 1860 by L. Wilson, store
owner and teacher at the Reidville Academy. The columns are
representative of the Greek Revival style. The classical
nature of the exterior was altered in the last quarter of
the nineteenth century by the vertical jagged wood paneling
on the pediment of the portico and roof.
15. Leonard-Snow House
(Location: next to the Wilson House)
Built in 1858 for a local merchant, a Mr. Leonard, who ran
the small store on the corner of Main and Gaston.
(no picture available)
16. Wood House
(Location: across the street from the Wilson house)
Built around 1860, the stucco exterior of recent years
conceals the brickwork beneath. Take a moment to consider
the community as a whole. How compact is the town? How do
the various buildings relate to each other? In what
respects is it different from the typical modern community?
17. McBee Chapel
(location: four miles east of Greenville, in the village
of Conestee, South Carolina)
This brick octagonal church is one of the few of its style
remaining in America. The church was built in 1841 by
Vardry McBee for the local mill workers. Notice the
simplicity that is representative of antebellum
republicanism and piety. How does this structure contrast
with Christ church?
This tour guide was produced by Drew Feight and Lloyd Benson
with the assistance of the Furman Advantage program, October 1992.
For copies of the original, including driving instructions,
contact us
through e-mail at BENSON_LLOYD/FURMAN@FURMAN.EDU
Return to Lloyd Benson's Home Page